How the Autobots adopt an organic
by LunarLacrimosa
Summary: One night Optimus finds Miles hitchhiking. After talking to the teen, he realizes something is wrong, and eventually figures out he is abused. Optimus being a father/older brother figure and getting enthralled with the idea of helping Miles, since he's suddenly has too much time in his servos with the war over. Child abuse warnings.
1. How the Autobots Adopt an Organic

**AN: **This is officially the longest thing I've ever written for a story. I got the idea from _CoraxOnyx_'s beautiful Doors to Let Out Life. They have a hitchhiking Miles being picked up by Optimus Prime, but after that it pretty much changes. I highly suggest reading their story, I really loved it. Rather this continues or not I have no idea.

* * *

><p>Optimus Prime drove along the highway in his alt mode, a large Peterbilt truck without the cargo hold. The Prime was reflecting on everything that had happened since coming to the small little mudball planet known as Earth, and everything that had happened to lead up to their coming there.<p>

Sometimes it seemed like all the bad things he had done outweighed the good, and this was one of those nights. The young Prime had left their makeshift base in search of solitude so he could reflect in peace. After many years of movement, being stationary for too long felt odd, so the drive was the perfect thing. It was late at night, so the Prime didn't have to worry about many other drivers being out and about, though he had his holoform out anyway, and the rain was falling just enough to soothe him. Hard enough to play a calming tune, but soft enough to not make him worry about driving conditions.

Optimus brought himself out of his thoughts when his scanner picked up something living about fifty feet ahead. It was a human, and as Optimus' headlights flashed on the organic, he could tell it was only a young male one. Arm held out with a thumb up, in what Will Lennox had informed him was the classic hitchhiking pose. The poor organic looked soaked, but Optimus knew if he stopped and picked the male up that not only would Ratchet rant at him for it, but he could possibly disclose their secret identities on accident. Even after Mission City the government had wanted them to keep quiet. It wasn't until he got to about fifteen feet away that Optimus recognized the young male.

Miles Lancaster was standing there, a backpack slung over one arm, and the other still held out. Even through his damp hair clinging to his face Optimus could tell he was eyeing his alt mode hopefully, more than likely wanting to get in and dry off. Optimus knew that the teen knew nothing of them, and yet he knew about him, and that he was friends with Sam.

Optimus Prime came screeching to a halt just beside Miles, popping open the passenger side door. He watched as Miles scrambled around him, and opened it and hefted himself up to look inside. He looked at the teen, and the teen just looked back for a moment. If nothing else, Optimus was happy that the teen was trying to be a little cautious.

"Mr. Lancaster, right?" Optimus asked, offering a hand to help pull the teen in.

Miles looked startled, swiping his wet hair out of his face to get a better look at Optimus' holoform, showing off what looked like a recently new black eye. Sam had mentioned that while he and Trent had never gotten physical, Miles had come around sporting a lot of wounds with the jock's cursed name taking the blame.

Miles eyed Optimus' holoform wearily, "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"I know Samuel."

Optimus was slightly surprised to notice that Miles hesitated while climbing inside when he said this. Had he been a normal organic like he was pretending to be he would have completely missed it, but as it was he didn't.

"Buckle up, Mr. Lancaster. Safety first." Optimus started his engine, waiting until Miles did so before starting to drive once more. "Back to Tranquility? You'll have to wait until I find a place to turn around."

"No!" Miles exclaimed, surprising Optimus. The teen coughed awkwardly, smiling apologetically. "Sorry, I don't know your name. Mr…?"

"Just calm me Orion."

"Well, Orion," Miles replied, "You can just call me Miles. If it's not too out of your way you can just drop me off at the nearest motel."

Optimus glanced sideways at the teen, "Where are you going?"

Here was another hesitation, just barely there.

"To visit my aunt down in Texas. Her and my mom got in a huge fight so she and my dad refuse to talk to her, but it's almost her birthday and we always go down. She's my favorite aunt and so I just thought…"

"Hitchhike?" Optimus filled in helpfully.

Miles grinned, "Right-o. And please, spare me any of that 'it's dangerous' stuff. I've done it before."

"Well, I will since I do know you, inadvertently. You're lucky that it was I to pick you up and not someone else." Optimus just couldn't keep _the_ tone out of his voice. The one that Will, Sam, and even Robby said made him sound like a cross between an awesome leader and a chiding parental figure. "Sam has a car, though. I'm sure he wouldn't have minded driving you down instead of having you hitchhike. Why did you not ask him?"

"We don't really talk that much anymore." Miles said, sounding slightly bitter as he stared out of Optimus' window in to the darkness.

That didn't seem right to Optimus. The way Sam talked the two had been close for years, and most of Sam's interesting stories almost always included Miles. So he asked why. Miles looked at him, looking thoughtful.

"Well, I guess it started when he got the car he'd been dreaming of. The next thing I knew he was kicking me out for Mikaela Banes, didn't even want me in the backseat."

Optimus felt the need to interrupt here. He had heard from both Bumblebee and Sam some of the comments Miles had made of the girl.

"He mentioned you said some… less than pleasant things about her."

Miles snorted, "Oh, c'mon. Look at her, and then look at him. No one saw that coming, not even me, and I am-was-his best friend! He'd been crushing on her big time since elementary school and she'd never given him a second glance. I was worried about him, and I thought if I kept putting her down he'd eventually get over her and move on to something we both thought was more in his league."

Optimus realized something Sam hadn't in that moment. Sam had thought that Miles was just being jealous, over the fact that his friend was focusing on someone else, or that he had a hot girl. But Sam had been wrong.

"You were merely trying to protect him?"

"Exactly," Miles nodded, "I am happy it worked out between them. He apparently drove her home after ditching me. Then there was the whole Mission City fiasco, and both he and Mikaela came back tightlipped and nervous."

"Nervous?"

Miles shrugged, "I guess maybe the government had covered some of the truth up. Anytime it even came on the news while I was around and Sam'd freak out a bit, and from the way he acted something had to have been a lie. He always sucked at lying. I guess that was the main reason for us drifting apart, he was too afraid he'd let something slip. It just made it easier that he was dating Mikaela and needed to spend more time with her than with me."

Optimus let that sink in, suddenly feeling guilty about something else. He had personally asked both Sam and Mikaela to keep quiet about the Cybertronians and about the real event at Mission City. It had put a strain on one of their relationships with other organics, something Optimus had never thought about.

After that, they drove in silence for a while. Miles just looked out the window watching it rain, and Optimus focused on driving and losing himself in his thoughts again, but this time they focused on the organic inside of him, and the organics he had come to know.

"Did your parents name you after the hunter?" Miles asked suddenly.

"Huh?" It was a rather inelegant response for a Prime as experience as him, but it had caught Optimus off guard and he had absolutely no idea what the organic was talking about.

"Y'know, Orion, the hunter who was sent to the stars after his death and now makes up the constellation."

"Oh, no." Optimus replied with a frown, "What do you meant he was sent to the stars after his death?"

Miles grinned again, weaving the ancient Greek tale. He told of how Orion met Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, and tried to impress her by killing all the animals he could. Instead it enraged her, and she sent a giant scorpion after him. After a fierce battle he died of the scorpion's sting, and Zeus, the leader of the gods, took his body and put him in the stars to honor him. He also put the scorpion there.

"Fascinating." Optimus was amazed at how creative the organics were, even in one of their earliest times on the planet Earth. He decided that some research of the planet they were now calling home should be done.

"I think so," Miles nodded, returning his attention to staring out the window. He looked up at the clouded sky somewhat wistfully as he added, "Everything would be a lot simpler if we could all just be turned into constellations."

Optimus made up his mind then and there. He'd find out what the teen was really doing even if it meant revealing what he was. But something like that needn't occur yet, so the Prime just bided his time. As they drove in silence Optimus made his holoform keep glancing at the dash, in case Miles would look over, and after about twenty minutes he had his engine start to sputter. He drifted himself off to the side and cursed for good measure.

"Sorry, it looks like I'm out of gas." Optimus said when Miles looked at him, giving his engine one last fake try before giving up. "I'm sure there's a gas station not too far ahead. I'll just walk to get some."

Both of them looked out the front windshield, watching as the rain came down harder.

"Wait until it stops raining, dude." Miles shook his head, relaxing back in his seat. "No reason to get sick over it."

The two just listened to the rain in companionable silence. Optimus listened to Miles yawn tiredly, watching as the teen tried to fight sleep, and felt as he idly rubbed the soft seat underneath him. He had been doing that for most of the ride, leading Optimus to conclude he either really liked how his interior felt, or he liked having something to do with his hands.

"Miles, do your parents know you're doing this?" Optimus asked softly.

Miles frowned out the window, "That should be obvious, shouldn't it?"

"I think it would be wise if I contacted them. They'll worry about you once they realize you're gone." Optimus reached for his radio, if nothing else planning to call Ratchet to tell him to do it.

"No, please! They won't even care that I'm gone. I mean," A slight pause, "I left a note, and they have my aunt's number. I've come all this way; I'd really rather not turn back now."

Optimus pulled his holoform's arm back, but looked at Miles. "Sam never mentioned you having an aunt in Texas."

"And how the hell would Sam know that I don't have an aunt in Texas?" Miles snapped angrily, "We don't go comparing where we do or don't have family."

Optimus held up his hands in a placating nature, and Miles refused to look at him. If Miles had known what the Prime was he would have had a lot more trouble, but thinking him just a fellow human made it easier.

"It's stopped raining. I'll go get some gas." Optimus said finally, reaching in the back to get a container. For once he was happy an organic had left something inside of him.

Miles nodded, slipping out himself to stretch his leg and go to use the bathroom. Optimus gave the teen privacy, focusing most of his processor on his holoform as it walked away so he wouldn't be spying on the teen. After so long he turned around, deciding that it seemed like he had gone far enough to get the needed gasoline. He walked back, taking the time to make sure to do everything he was supposed to even if Miles was nowhere near him.

When he got back, Miles was nowhere near his alt mode. Optimus cursed, setting the container down and scanning for the teen.

"Miles?"

"Over here, big O!"

Optimus was shocked to actually get a response, certain that the teen had bolted. He focused his scanners in the direction of Miles' voice, and found the teen, going over to him. Miles was sitting on his backpack to avoid the wet ground, staring up at the now mostly clear sky. The teen was silent until Optimus stood beside him.

"That's you," Miles said, pointing up at a grouping of stars. Optimus tilted his head back to get a better look, fake optics tracing the group of stars the humans had long ago named. With a start he realized one of them might have been the star that they had passed coming from Cybertron, but he would have to ask Ratchet to confirm it.

"Don't you think you're a little young to be hitchhiking, Miles? I understand it's for your aunt, but still."

Miles groaned, "Oh, not this again. Aren't you a little young to be a trucker?"

Optimus glanced down at himself. Like most of his fellow Autobots, he had converted his age to human years, and gone with that. He looked to be about his mid-20s, not buff but not easily overpowered either. He was tall, standing at about 6'8 with bright blue eyes and long black hair pulled back in a ponytail, on a suggestion from Will's wife.

He didn't understand why truck drivers had to have a certain age, but Sam had made a comment much like Miles' the first time Optimus had used his holoform.

Not to be deterred, Optimus pressed on.

"Are you running to something, or from something?"

"What are you, a psychiatrist too?" Miles asked sarcastically, standing up and grabbing the backpack. "Can we just get going again? I'm sure you want to get home at some point."

Optimus just nodded, following the teen as he walked back to Optimus' alt mode. Both of them climbed inside in silence, Optimus placing the container back in the back, and starting his engine. He pulled over and resumed driving. They drove in silence for about twenty minutes before Miles spoke up.

"I didn't see any gas station."

Optimus cursed inwardly, "It was on my side. You must have missed it."

"Oh. I was just beginning to think this is a really pointless road with nothing on it."

That much was basically true. They hadn't passed anything in a good while, and the next town was still a ways away. Optimus was thankful for that, he was sure that something was going on with the teen.

He had tried to help many in his life, and failed more than he had ever helped. Countless had died because of his servos, and others because of his mistakes. Each loss, even Decepticon, weighed on his spark, creating a scar that could never be healed. The Great War had caused much suffering, and he knew he wasn't the only one to feel it.

"You look like you just tried to fight the world and lost, dude." Miles said simply, and Optimus realized that the teen was looking at his holoform.

"Excuse me?"

"I've heard the expression of someone wearing their heart on their sleeve, but I've never seen it before. What are you thinking of?"

It was true. The Prime had always had trouble hiding his true emotions, and the battle mask on his bipedal mode was a blessing because of that. In alt mode no one or mech could tell anyway, but if he was using a holoform he apparently wasn't that lucky. Optimus thought for a while, Miles looking at him expectantly the whole time.

"I used to be a soldier, on a tiny island you never heard of. Civil war broke out, and a side had to be chosen. Friends and families were split up, and no one didn't suffer through a loss by the end of it. I was the leader of one side, and my…" Here Optimus hesitated slightly, the events of Mission City playing in his processor. "My brother was the leader of the other. Many died, and eventually he died too, ending the war."

"And I bet you're one of those who took every loss personally, even if it wasn't one of your men." Miles said, surprisingly softly.

Optimus could only nod.

"If you feel so bad after all that, even after winning, then I'd say your good, dude. If all you ever did was the best you could, then that was all you ever could do, and your people still stuck by you, so you must have been doing something right." Miles looked out of his window thoughtfully, "No one escapes life unscarred, Orion. That you take on all the weight you have, though you needn't of, shows you have a good heart. But it's okay to let it go, too. No one will hold it against you if you let yourself relax and be happy. Sometimes you just have to strive on and make life work for you."

Optimus could tell that Ratchet and Miles would get along well. The hot-tempered Medic had always been trying to get Optimus to relax, especially after the war had ended.

Optimus decided a topic change would be nice, "It looks like you've been in a battle of your own, recently."

Miles looked at him questioningly, before he realized what was being talked about, and nodded.

"Yeah, some jock in school named Trent."

Optimus recalled Sam saying that Miles had been on the unfortunate end of Trent's fists a few times before, and then Mikaela's confusion over the matter. Trent hated Sam more than Miles, and he'd never raised a hand against Sam. She'd never heard of him raising a hand against Miles, either, because he usually boasted about any fights he had. Sam had admitted that he'd never seen Trent actually hit Miles. That meant Miles was lying.

"Sam's mentioned him before." Optimus replied offhandedly.

Miles grinned, "Find out he's terrified of clowns yet?"

"Is he?"

That would certainly explain the fight he had with Mikaela about going to the circus. Miles dug in his pocket and pulled out his phone, pulling up a photo. He handed it to Optimus, and while the Prime thought he should pretend to pay attention to driving more, he took it with one hand anyway.

There was Sam, probably not long before he had met Bumblebee, with a clown. The clown had an arm wrapped around the teen, and the look on Sam's face would have been hysterical to Bumblebee or Mikaela. Poor Sam looked like he was about to cry.

"His parents let me help with one of his birthday parties. Judy left me and Ron in charge of the clown, and well, Bobo ended up setting Sam's hair on fire. He's been terrified of them ever since, and that's why he refuses to let his hair grow out, too."

Optimus couldn't stop a small grin coming out, he'd have to use that later. The Prime went to give Miles his phone back when he accidentally switched pictures to a middle aged woman.

"Who's that?" Optimus asked curiously.

"My mother." Miles replied, flashing a brilliant smile.

Optimus studied the picture a bit more, "You look a lot like her. Is your father in here, too?"

The smile faltered, before coming back looking a little put on.

"The next picture."

The next picture was of Miles' mother hugging what Optimus took to be her husband. The male organic was a good deal darker skinned than Miles, with darker hair and darker eyes.

"Oh, you don't look much like him at all." The Prime knew that organic genetics could act oddly, but usually the offspring looked somewhat similar to both genitors in some respect. Sam did, Mikaela did, Robby, Will, and Sarah did. Even little Annabelle showed traits from both her parents. For a Cybertronian it was easier to pick these similarities up, be it just slight facially, or prominent.

"Genetics." Miles said shortly, looking out the window again.

Optimus realized he had treaded on to an iffy subject with the teen, and racked his processors for why. An old conversation with Sam and Bumblebee popped up in his processors.

"_Hey, Sam, what does bastard child mean?" Bee had asked, the two Cybertronians in holoform and sitting beside Sam. They had been watching some television show, and when that phrase had been used there was a big hubbub over it._

_Sam thought for a moment, "It's supposed to mean a child whose born when their parents aren't married yet, but I've heard it used differently before, like when a spouse cheats on another but the child remains in the relationship. Remember Miles? His mom cheated on his dad, but his dad was kind enough to accept him and forgive her."_

Now Optimus wondered if that was true. He couldn't fathom how any parent could hurt their offspring, but he had heard of it before.

"I'm going to ask again: are you running from something?"

Hesitation, until Miles quickly said no. Like all the other times Optimus didn't believe him.

"Sometimes you just have to strive on and make life work for you?" Optimus asked, copying Miles word for word.

Miles was just starting to realize how much Optimus didn't believe him. Optimus could read the realization on his face, and then the acceptance of that. The teen just made a small noise of confirmation in reply, knowing he was stuck where he hadn't wanted to be.

"Miles, where did you really get that black eye?"

Silence. Optimus knew Miles had heard him, the teen was looking directly at him, but now he couldn't read anything on the young organics face.

"Sam mentioned something about your father once. Did your father, does he-"

"Don't." Miles uttered this word so softly that a normal organic might have missed it.

Optimus didn't ask anything else, he didn't need to. He was almost certain he had the answer he was looking for now, but he realized too late that he'd never really wanted it. One look at Miles and he could see that the teen had never been looking to give it.

For the first time that night, Optimus Prime wondered if he had made a mistake in picking up a soaked Miles Lancaster.

The Prime took another look at the organic sitting beside him, and made another decision. He had failed many in his lifetime, but this time he refused to fail again. He would help Miles.

Slowly, Optimus adjusted the air coming in through his air conditioner and added a sleeping gas to it. Ratchet had given him a small container of it in case he needed to transport any injured or scared organics, who it would just be easier to send to sleep. There were still plenty of Decepticons on Earth, and there was always that chance. He had told Ratchet he'd never end up using it, but took it anyway.

Optimus Prime finally used that gas, and five minutes later Miles was sound asleep in his passenger seat.

* * *

><p>When Miles first woke up and opened his eyes, it wasn't the throbbing in one of them that worried him. It wasn't that he had absolutely no clue where he was, or how he had gotten there. It was the fact that when he looked down he couldn't recognize the clothes he had on. An oversized white t-shirt, and too big sweatpants. He was only slightly reassured to see that, when he checked, he still had on his own boxers. He noticed his clothes neatly folded on the floor near to him.<p>

He glanced around the room to find it extremely bare. It was large, with windows high up and a cement floor. He was lying on what looked like an air mattress, with a thin blanket at his side. It almost looked like he was in an empty warehouse, or a hangar. Miles tried to remember the night before, remembering getting in with a hunter, no a trucker, named Orion, but after that most of it was a blurr.

"How could you just bring him here? Did you think at all?" An angry voice yelled, startling Miles.

"Now, Ratch, calm down!" He recognized Orion's voice, "I have reason to believe his parental units did him ill."

Miles scowled, and stood up. He was going to give Orion a peace of his mind for messing around with his life. If he had just left Miles alone he'd be off by now without anyone the wiser. Miles stalked toward the open door, and threw it open.

"Now you look here, Orion! You had no right kidnapping me-!"

Anything else Miles had to say died on his lips when instead of finding the man he remembered from last night, he instead found two giant robot-like things. Both stared down at him in surprise, but the taller one reminded him of the truck Orion had been driving. Miles mouth dropped open in shock.

Optimus looked at Ratchet with worry, "I thought you said he should have been asleep longer?"

"Did you use all of the gas?" The Medic asked, surprisingly calm now that the organic in question was in front of them.

Miles realized that Orion's voice was coming from the big blue one, and that the other one was the one he had been about to fight with. He also realized that from the sounds of it he had been knocked out by some gas.

"No."

"That'd be why. It was meant for a couple of people, not just one." Ratchet bent down, getting closer to scan the organic.

"You are so cool," Miles breathed out, surprising both of the Cybertronians. Most organics reacted with some amount of fear. Even Sam had. Ratchet's scan picked up systems running on surprised adrenaline, but not necessarily fear, and it looked as if the teen might have caught what Sam often called a 'bug'.

"His scans are good, Optimus." Ratchet said at length, straightening up. He didn't like the look of the organics eye, but he'd watch it.

"Excuse me? Orion, I'd love to know what's going on."

"Orion? You gave him your old name?" Ratchet asked in surprise.

"I had nothing else. It's apparently a human constellation, so it worked." Optimus shrugged, "Miles, my true name is Optimus Prime. Before that I was Orion Pax, so the name I gave you is not a direct lie."

"No, you don't seem the type to actually lie. You just half ass it."

"He's got you pegged already." Ratchet snorted with amusement. Optimus gave him a sideways glare.

"I'd prefer to see it as half-truths." Optimus said defensively, "We are from the planet Cybertron, referred to as Cybertronians in general by your people. The war I mentioned was between my faction, the Autobots, and Megatron's faction, the Decepticons. The war eventually destroyed our planet, and we sent our greatest hope, the Allspark cube, off into the far depths of space. It eventually came to be here, and Megatron followed it. Sam's great-grandfather, Archibald Witwicky, found Megatron in the arctic circle. The humans unearthed him, and that is where your technology comes from."

"No shit?"

"No shit," Optimus replied with some amusement, before explaining everything else. How Sam became involved, how the Allspark cube had been hidden in Hoover Dam, and how they had eventually taken the battle to Mission City. The way Megatron and the cube had ceased to exist, and that the government then moved them to their own little base in Nevada.

Miles was silent for a moment, before starting to laugh. "So instead of kidnapped, should I think of myself as abducted?"

Ratchet smirked, "Just don't worry about getting anal probed. We have no interest there."

Optimus was completely lost while the two laughed. He was happy to see Miles was taking everything better than he could have expected, but with what he believed the teen would have been good at putting on a smile to hide what was inside. He wasn't sure how to bring it up now that the teen was actually in front of him again.

"Optimus thinks you were abused." Ratchet, however, had no such problem. Optimus frowned at his CMO, the mech had never been good at beating around the bush.

"Optimus thinks a lot of things." Miles swiftly evaded the topic.

"I think you're trying to change the topic. It won't work on me, youngling. Optimus might not have the metal bearings to confront you right out-"

"So he abducted me instead," Miles cut in.

"-but I do. I'm Ratchet, the Chief Medical Officer of the Autobots, which means I have to deal with their processors to." Here Ratchet jerked a servo in Optimus' direction, "If I can even get him to open up, I think I can get what I want out of you, too."

Ratchet let that sink in for a moment, crossing his arms over his chassis as he eyed the teen. Optimus just stood there, allowing the Medic to take the lead in this area. He was better at it. He did expect the teen to try to smooth talk them a little more, so he was surprised by the look of defeat the flashed across Miles' face. When he glanced over at Ratchet, the Medic appeared slightly surprised too.

"I know, I know, it's not right. I should have told someone." Miles finally said, sighing and looking straight down at the ground. "It doesn't even happen that often, but I knew the older I got the harder it would be to explain. So, this summer seemed perfect. I could just escape; become another teen who had run away for no apparent reason. Me 'n Sam had drifted apart, so it's not like he'd worry too much over why, or at least I hoped not."

"Why did you let it continue?" Ratchet asked, bending down to the teen's level once more.

"She really loves him. He's never raised a hand to her, and I can tell he truly loves her, too. I couldn't ruin that."

Optimus activated his communication center, and sent out a comm to Ratchet.

_:What should we do? I initially thought that alerting the Child Services would be good enough after getting him here safe and dry.:_

Ratchet took a moment to reply, _:In a situation like this, the victim's psyche can often be very delicate. I am afraid that if we report his male genitor that it would only naturally break his genitors apart, and then he'd blame himself. Whether he blames himself for what his male genitor does to him I can not tell.:_

_:He seems so strong and unbreakable.: _Optimus recognized Miles' resolve to stick through it so that his mother could be happy. It was completely foolish, and the teen was only making himself hurt, but he could admire that just a little bit.

_:So do you.: _Ratchet hinted that just like Miles, Optimus hid his true weakness underneath.

_:I say we adopt him!:_ Ironhide's voice came on the line, surprising the both of them.

Optimus knew he had been using the open comm line, but didn't know that Ironhide had been paying attention. Or that Ironhide knew what was going on. That was when the Weapons Specialist poked his helm around the corner, offering a wave as he walked into view.

_:WHAT THE PIT DO YOU MEAN BY 'ADOPT HIM'?:_

Optimus tried not to cringe back from the Medic at the loud noise, knowing it was just inside his processor. Ironhide however leaned far back from the irate Medic, standing next to Miles.

_:The government owes us a favor, right? The brat doesn't want it getting out, and I agree. Imagine how Sam would feel.:_

Neither Optimus or Ratchet had added Sam into the equation. Both could easily think of how absolutely devastated Sam would be, and how much he'd hate himself for never noticing. Ratchet only grew more annoyed that it was Ironhide pointing this out. Ironhide and Ratchet often clashed heads, the Medic almost always second guessing himself while the Weapons Specialist was almost always too sure of himself.

_:Now imagine how Sam would feel if Miles was thrown into CPS and had to move far away to a new family.: _

It would be almost the same reaction, only a lot worse.

"Hey, you want a job?" Ironhide asked, looking down at Miles.

Miles looked annoyed, "Sure, why not. Get abducted by giant alien robots, spill out my life story to giant alien robots, stand here as giant alien robots go silent, and why not take a job from giant alien robots?"

"Don't give me that attitude." Ironhide growled, instantly shutting Miles up. The teen didn't know how much he could get away with, and Ironhide used that awareness to his advantage.

Ratchet and Optimus realized what Ironhide was getting at.

"If you accepted a job with us, we could pull some strings and get you allowance to stay here. You're genitors could come visit you, or you them, but one of us would go with you so you wouldn't have to be alone with the aft." Ironhide explained.

"Why would you do that for me?"

Ratchet looked down at the teen, "Why would you do that for your mother?"

Miles looked up at all three of them in silence, finally just nodding his acceptance.

"Fine, whatever, it's not like this isn't all messed up insane anyway. Can I eat breakfast now?"

All three Cybertronians looked down at Miles, and then at each other. Ratchet turned and hit Optimus hard over the helm.

"You didn't even think to get any fuel for him? What kind of glitch are you? Take him and go see if you can scrounge up any junk Sam or the soldiers left behind!"

Optimus obeyed immediately, grabbing a laughing organic up as he went in search for any food. While there were no actual dorms or barracks for the humans to stay in yet, they made do on air mattresses or the couch in the rec-room hangar. Most of their food was left in the hangar deemed as the cafeteria for organics, and the Energon station for the Cybertronians.

Ratchet opened up a private comm to Ironhide.

_:Why'd you come up with that?:_

_:Did you see Prime's face? He's got it in his processor that helping this youngling out is what he needs to do.:_

Ratchet vented softly, _:I know. He means the best, but he really should try to stay in our species.:_

_:Actually, I think this will liven things up a little around here. He's been moping since Mission City, and now he has a purpose again. On top of that, could you imagine the bolt Sam is going to blow when he finds out? And besides, Bee deals with Sam daily. It can't be that hard to take care of an organic.:_

_:The ones we deal with have things to take care of themselves, even Sam and Mikaela. We have next to nothing here for just Miles. Those are Will's clothes, and I guarantee whatever's left is just junk food. That's hardly healthy, and what if he falls ill?:_

_:You worry too much, Medic.:_

Things were about to change big time around the Autobot base, and only Ratchet was worrying if any of it could go bad.


	2. How the Organic Resurrects an Autobot

**AN: **Not as long as the first chapter, but this is my general chapter length. If and when this gets continued I don't know.

**Reviews: **Thanks for all the reviews! (_Beowulf28, Creative Lunatic, qaz1234, beetransfan, inner evil, The-Darkest-Hour-2311, Answerthecall, Prototron MJ Tornada_)

_**Chapter 2  
><strong>**How the Organic Resurrects an Autobot**_

* * *

><p>Miles woke up to a scream trapped in his throat, not letting him breathe as he desperately fought against the thin blanket he had gotten himself tangled up in. He swallowed the lump, blinking as his eyes tried to adjust to the sudden darkness. It figured that once he was kidnapped by giant alien robots he would immediately have a nightmare about them. He sat up and scrubbed a palm over his face, trying to rid himself of the terror he felt in his heart.<p>

Though he was covered in sweat, a chill ran down his spine as he realized how dark it was and how utterly alone he was. He was back in the hangar he had originally woken up in, using the same inflatable mattress and the same thin blanket. It was his second night away from home, and Miles missed it. He knew he would, he'd prepared for it, but he hadn't planned to be kidnapped by Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots.

But then again, he wasn't exactly complaining. So far everything was pretty cool. Optimus had managed to scrounge up enough food to last Miles the entire day, and they were planning to go to the store and use what money Miles had bothered to bring along to get him more. They already had plumbing, so he wasn't worried about disposing of his waste or staying hydrated. How they were going to keep him around hadn't been explained to him completely yet, and he was preparing to be kicked back home any day. Miles didn't let himself hope that it would stay the way Ironhide had said. It all sounded too simple.

The teen checked his Ipod, having not turned on his phone since he left his house because of the texts and phone calls he would receive, and noted it was just a little past twelve a.m. He groaned, he had gone to bed just a little less than an hour ago per Ratchet's urging. After the nightmare he didn't want to go back to sleep, and just remembering the dream sent a chill down his spine.

The dream itself had taken place in Mission City, and there had been a large grey mech with cold red optics. As vague as Optimus had been in his initial explanation, as Miles did plan to ask for more details, he had just known it was Megatron. Miles had been what he could only assume was an Autobot, since he had been shooting Megatron and then challenged and goaded the Decepticon leader as the mech landed on top of some building. Miles had asked Megatron if the mech had wanted a piece of him as he shot the Decepticon lord with his plasma canon.

Miles shivered at the memory of Megatron's voice, and at the feeling of being literally torn in two to fit the Decepticon leader's desires. That had been when he woke up, nearly screaming at the seeming reality of it.

He stood up and went outside, planning to walk the nightmare off. The cold night air felt refreshing against his still heated body, and unlike the night before the moon shown bright enough to illuminate any path he wanted to take. He assumed that the three Autobots were in recharge, their version of sleeping. He looked around for a moment, and while Optimus had been courteous enough to show him most of the base, as small as it was, there had been one section the Prime had avoided.

This is where Miles went, using the human sized door to get in. The fact that it was unlocked meant it couldn't be too top secret, or they were just absentminded enough to not think to lock it. Either way, Miles went inside, and after fumbling along the wall for a few seconds, he found a light switch and flicked it on. It looked to be like an extremely downsized version of the Medbay that he had been shown by Ratchet. There was a metal birth, and on it was something covered in a big tarp. The only other thing in the room was a large metal table, and he could see several tools on it. Miles hummed in disappointment; there wasn't anything interesting in the room.

As the teen turned to go, he heard a small clinking noise of something hitting the floor. He looked back, and under the metal table an extremely small object glinted in the light. Miles went over to investigate, bending over and picking up a sliver of… something. He assumed it was some type of metal, but what it could have come from he had no idea. He ran his thumb across it, enjoying the odd texture the sliver had to it, up until it glowed brightly and burned hot in his hand, nearly making him drop it.

"_**Do ya wan' a piece of meh? Do ya wan' a piece?"  
>"No, I want two!"<strong>_

Two voices filled the tiny Medbay like room, making Miles cry out in surprise. It matched his dream exactly, and Megatron's voice brought it back with sickening clarity. He had gone out to get rid of it, not to be reminded of it. And now it wasn't just been in his head, the voices had been loud and clear, coming out of the sliver of metal resting in his clenched palm.

Miles started to panic, going to open his hand and toss it, but he couldn't open his hand even when he pried at it with the other one. The next thing Miles could think to do was to yell, and yell as loudly as he could for each 'bot on base. Only a choking sound left his mouth when he opened it, making him panic more, before a startling sense of peace washed over him.

As panicked as he had been just a moment before, he wasn't afraid at all now, something inside of his mind whispering that whatever was going on wasn't going to hurt him. Or maybe it was the sliver getting inside of his head, worming its way into his brain and telling him what it wanted to get him to cooperate. And seemingly without his control, his body was moving and finding a way to hoist himself up on to the berth. The berth was about ten feet off the ground, and if Miles jumped just right he could grab the outer edge and do a pull up until he could drag himself on. Under normal circumstances he wouldn't have been able to do something that strenuous, but nothing going on was normal.

Miles carefully removed the tarp from whatever it was covering, letting it drop to the floor as he stared at the unmoving body of a Cybertronian. He knew it was dead, but without even hesitating he clambered on to the dead mech's chest plates, to where there was an open hole. Going down almost an exact half of the dead mech's body was a visible weld from where the frame had been put back together after being torn in half. Miles knew instantly that this was who his dream had been about, who he had been in the dream, and whose voice he had heard just a while ago. The hand clenching the sliver of metal moved over the hole in the mech's chest of its own accord, and then opened, the sliver dropping inside.

In the next instance, a brilliant bright light was pouring out of the hole, blinding Miles and making the teen tumble backwards as he tried to get away from the intensity of it. He fell over the edge of the berth, landing on the tarp. He found himself frozen in place, eyes clenched tight even as pain crawled up his spine to match the new aching in his backside.

Time seemed to crawl by, and even when the light dimmed enough to look Miles kept his eyes shut tight. He could practically hear the Cybertronian body on the berth thrumming with life, and then metal scraping against metal as the body started to _move_. Miles silently prayed that it wasn't going to end up being some freaky zombie alien thing that he released on the world; it was so not the way he wanted to go.

Miles dared a peak, just in time to see the Cybertronian shoot up, visor down and battle ready as he searched for an enemy that he wouldn't find. Miles stood up slowly, and regretted this instantly when a plasma cannon was shoved in his face. Just as soon as he was staring down the barrel of it, it was transformed back into the mech's servo.

"Yah jus' a fleshling!" Jazz said in amusement, more at his own reaction than anything else. He bent down to get more at eye level with Miles, eyeing the teen up. "Can ya tell meh where Ah am?"

"The Autobot base. How are you alive?" Miles couldn't help but ask, knowing how the mech had died.

"Ah'd like to know that myself," Jazz replied, picking Miles up in his servo. "Ah assume i' has somethin' ta do with ya, so thank ya."

"You're welcome. I'm sorry; Optimus never mentioned your name just that he lost a good comrade."

"Ah'm Jazz, third in command an' bes' Saboteur aroun'," Jazz boasted, letting his visor lift to reveal blue optics.

Miles grinned, "I'm Miles, and your first in command kidnapped me."

"Naw!" Jazz exclaimed, "Ah'm gonna have to 'ear this story."

"I think they're all sleeping," Miles glanced at his Ipod again, "It's about 12:45 in the morning now."

"In recharge? No' for long!" Jazz said cheerfully, carrying Miles outside of the tiny Medbay look alike room and setting the teen down. "Ah suggest coverin' those listenin' devices of yahs."

Miles did just that, covering his ears.

"AH'M BACK, BABY!" Jazz shouted, accompanying the shout with some acoustics.

Even with his ears covered, Miles winced at the level Jazz used, and when the mech started playing the music he could feel the vibrations.

That didn't matter as much when he got to see Optimus, Ironhide, and Ratchet all try to come out of the same hangar at once. Ironhide had gotten to the exit first, but Optimus had arrived soon after and the Prime's momentum had crashed him in to the Weapons Specialist, sending them both to the ground. They ended up creating a two mech pile, Ironhide struggling and cursing on the bottom with Optimus just on top of him, and then Ratchet grasping the opportunity to climb over the Prime and race over to where Jazz and Miles stood. How they managed to do all of that in the space they had, Miles wasn't really sure, but then again he was just trying not to burst out laughing.

When Ratchet did make it over to them, he grabbed Jazz by the shoulders, and then shook the Saboteur hard as if to make sure he was really there. Then he went about scanning the mech just as Optimus and Ironhide made it over.

"Well, this is a unexpecte' welcomin', guys." Jazz grinned at his team, only slightly surprised when Optimus picked him up and hugged him.

Ratchet growled, "How the frag are you alive?"

"Nice ta see yah two, Ratch!" Jazz laughed, and then pointed at Miles. "Blame 'im."

Four sets of blue optics turned towards Miles, three mystified and the last extremely amused.

"Oh, y'know, I couldn't sleep so I just thought I'd try my hand at raising the dead. It was a success on Jazz, I guess I can move on to my own people now." Miles replied sarcastically, before taking the honest route. "I had a nightmare, so I decided to go for a walk. Optimus had shown me the entire base except the part Jazz was in, so I went in there to explore. I was about to leave when this sliver of metal fell on the floor, and I picked it up. I picked it up, and of course crazy shit starts to happen. I hear Jazz, and then Megatron, and then it's moving _my_ body and making me climb up on Jazz's berth, and then I drop the shard in Jazz's chest hole thing."

"A sliver?" Optimus asked, before turning to Ratchet. "Was it the shard of the Allspark?"

"I believe so," Ratchet turned his scans from Jazz to Miles, "I tried to bring Jazz back using the Allspark shard myself, but it would not work. Not only has it worked when an organic used it, but it has healed Miles. You say you heard Jazz, and Megatron? How do you know it was Megatron?"

"Healed?" Miles asked, a hand automatically going for his black eye, until Ratchet shook his helm. "And because of my nightmare. I was Jazz in Mission City, and it ran through me-him getting killed by Megatron. Megatron was one of the last things he heard."

"My first scans of you showed that you were beginning to catch what Samuel calls a 'bug'. As the day progressed I believe you yourself had said something about feeling like you were getting something. And it appears that the shard was affecting you even before you touched it, giving you a vision of Mission City. It wanted you to get up and go to where Jazz was," Ratchet mused.

"Okay, not that I'm not happy that Jazz is alive and I'm not gonna get sick anymore, but why did this shard thingy react to me and not you? Isn't your thingy?"

"It is our thingy," Ratchet said dryly, "However it is an intelligence all on to itself. Why it reacted to you, I do not know.

Optimus looked between Ratchet and Miles, before running his own scan on the teen. "I believe Primus is smiling down on us, old friends."

Miles was trying not to roll his eyes. He couldn't decide if it was too early or too late to be dealing with this nonsense any more, and he just wanted to go back to sleep now. It was great that Jazz was alive, but it would be better if he went to bed before he could feel like an awkward fifth wheel when he already felt a bit out of place among the alien robots. He didn't know Jazz, he barely knew any of them. He knew himself, and now his life was being screwed with by some shard thingy that got in his dreams and controlled his body.

"That's all well and good for you, but what does it mean for me?" Miles asked finally.

But no mech had an answer for him.


	3. How the Organic is Found Out

**AN: **I got a review and it inspired me to quickly do this chapter. Sam and Bumblebee come in, woo! Review for the next chapter, pwease. *w* They actually get me writing.

**Reviews:** Thanks to all who reviewed! (_Mikaela the Cat, Prototron MJ Tornada, PrimesSPARROW, nequam-tenshi_)

**Chapter Three  
><strong>**How the Organic is Found Out**

* * *

><p>Sam nursed a coffee from Starbucks in between his hands, not even bothering to pretend to drive. No one was out this early, about an hour before dawn even looked like it was coming. He needn't worry about playing driver, or asking Bumblebee to get out his holoform and do it himself.<p>

To say Sam was tired was an understatement. His best friend had just turned up missing, his mother was freaking out, Sam's parents were freaking out because Miles had been like a second son, and he was freaking out. The first night Miles was gone Sam hadn't slept a wink, and the second night Sam had managed to get to sleep, but then Bumblebee had woken him up at some unholy hour, going on about Jazz being resurrected.

Sam had barely been awake when Bumblebee had told excitedly told him, was barely awake now, and what little start on actually functioning his brain had managed had halted completely. He knew that Ratchet had planned to use the Allspark shard to try to bring Jazz online again, had tried several times in fact, but for some reason it had never worked, and even Optimus had lost hope by then. Sam had thought the two worst words possible when Bumblebee had told him, and now that was all his brain would focus on.

_Zombie aliens_.

Jesus, it was too early for this nonsense, and the coffee wasn't doing much to help. He stared blankly out of Bumblebee's windshield, and was startled when Bumblebee actually bothered to speak.

"You could sleep," Bumblebee offered softly.

Sam shook his head, "Naw. So Ratchet finally got the Allspark shard to work?"

"I assume so," Bumblebee replied. "This late, or early, I can't imagine Ratchet working on Jazz unless he was extremely frustrated at not being able to bring him back. Or it could have been either Optimus or Ironhide, though Ironhide is unlikely. None of the three soldiers are there at the moment."

"I can just see Ratch getting pissed enough that it scares Primus into making the Allspark shard work." Sam commented tiredly, getting a snort out of Bumblebee. "Can't wait to actually talk to Jazz, though. Never got the chance before."

"Actually…" Bumblebee trailed off, clearing his vocalizer. "Optimus requested that I not bring you."

"Why?"

"I believe it is because Jazz is getting used to being alive again, and hasn't really been around organics in a non-battle situation, outside of your first meeting with all of us. His suddenly coming back might have left him disoriented, as well."

Sam looked at the Autobot symbol on the steering wheel in amusement, "So you're going ahead and bringing me anyway."

"I am your Guardian; I am capable of keeping you safe."

* * *

><p>Miles met Optimus as he was coming out of the recharge hangar he shared with Ratchet and Ironhide. Jazz had yet to be included in that lot, as Ratchet still had him confined to the Medbay for the most part, much to the Saboteur's chagrin.<p>

"What's on the agenda today, boss 'bot?" Miles asked, falling into a brisk walk or slow trot at the Prime's peds.

"Bumblebee is coming to see Jazz," Optimus replied, happy to note that the teen's black eye seemed to be fading already. "And in fact he'll be here in about five minutes, he just commed me."

The two came to a stop when they came upon Jazz, Ironhide, and Ratchet all standing together on the tarmac right around where Bumblebee would pull up. Miles yawned, rubbed at his eyes, and stretched leisurely, looking out at the horizon.

"I still can't believe that Sam's car has been sentient all this time and I never noticed."

Jazz smirked at the tiny organic, "We ah good at hidin', lil' buddy."

The Saboteur had been informed of the delicate situation concerning Miles an hour after the teen went back to sleep. He knew for a fact now that Optimus, Ratchet, and Ironhide were happy to see Bumblebee coming on base for more than just a small get together because of it. They were all hoping that the Scout would be able to plan the best way to tell Sam that not only had his missing best friend been with them the whole time, but had troubles with his father, too.

Miles wandered off to go grab a granola bar with a roll of his eyes at Jazz's comment, and a minute later Bumblebee pulled up. He transformed oddly, a servo behind his leg for some reason, but none of the Autobots really paid attention to the odd transformation. They all got bored sometimes, or wanted a way to show off. Jazz himself had broken a hip strut showing off to Prowl while transforming.

"Jazz!" Bumblebee practically bellowed, and he would have hugged the Saboteur if it wasn't for Sam hiding behind his ped.

"Bee! Ah am offended, where's mah hug?" Jazz questioned, visor flashing and tone dripping with mock hurt. He picked up an organic head peaking around Bumblebee's ped.

"Miles?"

Sam's voice rang out in confusion from behind Bumblebee, almost enough to make Bumblebee wince because he had disobeyed a direct command from his Prime by bringing him there. The uttered name brought all of the mechs' attention to a surprised looking Miles, having just walked about five feet in front of Optimus peds when Sam spotted him, granola bar in hand.

And in an instant Sam was on him, grabbing a fistful of Miles' shirt and shaking him.

"This is where you've been?" Sam growled, "My parents and I have been searching all over for you! You could've called or at least texted, they would have let you! Your mother's worried herself sick, and you know how she is! She's weak hearted normally, to top it all off she's _pregnant_, and this is what you do to her?"

_Pregnant_. The word rang in Optimus' processor for a moment, because everything about why Miles had chosen now to run suddenly made so much sense. It wasn't because the injuries were getting harder to explain, or even because he and Sam had started to drift apart. It was all because Miles' mother was pregnant, and the only logical conclusion was that this baby actually belonged to the man that made Miles run in the first place, because otherwise Miles would have stayed to protect it.

Miles just let Sam shake him, not even protesting or trying to defend himself against his friend. This only fueled Sam's anger.

"You don't even have anything to say for yourself, you fucking asshole?" Sam snarled, and then reared his right arm back and punched Miles in the face with a sickening crunch.

"Bumblebee!" Optimus snapped instantly, "Control your charge!"

Bumblebee glanced at his Prime in surprise, but reached down and grabbed Sam none the less. Fig and Epps had once ended up in an argument so bad that they ended up rolling on the ground, and Optimus had ordered all of the Autobots to stay out of it. After that it was a general rule that they didn't get in between the organics when they were fighting, and as much as Bumblebee would want to step in if Miles struck back, he wouldn't.

Except Optimus had ordered him to, and Bumblebee had already disobeyed one order that day, and that had turned out badly. Now he had a still raging Sam squirming in his servo, mumbling under his breath and glaring at Miles. Miles was holding his face, but that didn't stop the few drops of blood escaping from his fingers and falling to the ground. At the sight of it Sam seemed to lose most of his anger, visibly deflating in his Guardian's hands.

Optimus reached down and shifted Miles into a large servo gently, the teen just holding his face and letting him, before making a beeline towards the Medbay. Ratchet watched him go, visibly torn between following or staying.

"Shouldn't you go with them?" Bumblebee asked, frowning at the three mechs in front of him and the way they seemed almost nervous.

"Optimus has advanced enough scanners to see if something is broken, Miles should know of how to stop or at least control the blood flow." Ratchet responded automatically, more trying to convince himself than Bumblebee. "Though I probably should go, I do not have much faith in these two."

"Faith in them for what?" Bumblebee asked, narrowing his optics.

Jazz, Ironhide, and Ratchet all glanced at each other, and Jazz held up his servos, stepping back.

"Ah just came back 'n dun know Samuel tha' well."

Ironhide revved his engine, stepping back beside the Saboteur. "Ratchet, I'm better at slagging Decepticons. You're better at being a Medic, and Medics have to deal with emotions too."

Ratchet flashed both of them a look that promised pain, processor desperately trying to come up with a lie that made sense and would be easy for Miles to remember and fall into. But the truth was there, waiting to come out.

* * *

><p>Optimus placed Miles on one of the berths, activating his holoform and placing it just in front of the teen.<p>

"Move your hands." Optimus said gently, Miles shaking his head.

This entire time, and the teen hadn't even made a sound, not even a whimper, and wasn't even crying, though there were tears in his eyes. Optimus wasn't sure what to make of that, but he was more worried about getting the teen's hands away from his face and being able to scan his nose without them getting in the way. He held a rag to the teen's face to catch any more blood, one that Ratchet used to clean up grease and oil, but really it could be used for this too, and it was better than Miles just using his hands.

"It's not broken," Optimus sighed in relief. "I'm sorry, I told Bumblebee not to bring him, but he didn't listen."

Miles just nodded, and now he wasn't even looking at Optimus, but he was trying to push the Prime's hands away, trying to hold the rag for himself. Optimus let him, letting his focus transfer to his bipedal mode to search for something better to catch the blood, for something to clean off the teen's hands with because they were covered in already drying blood. He turned around for a few seconds, and by the time he turned back Miles had his knees up against his chest, arms around them and still holding the rag to his face, but now his bangs were mostly hiding his face from view.

Optimus felt his Spark well up with emotion for the teen, too many to bother naming. The teen had been through so much, did so much in more consideration of others than he ever showed to himself, but he still refused to break.

"The pregnancy is the real reason you decided to leave, isn't it? It's his this time, and you were hoping that because of that he'd leave it alone, wouldn't lay a finger on it like he did to you, and even if it broke your mother's heart you thought it was more likely he'd leave your future sibling alone if you weren't there, because finding out what her husband did to you could possibly break her heart even more."

Miles tensed up, because every dam had to swell before it finally broke.

"God, Sam-he's gonna be-be so pissed, so _hurt_ when he finds out." Miles managed to choke out even with the stuttering, finally crying, finally talking, finally doing _something_ that showed how hurt he was on the inside, even if it was shoved behind concern for his friend.

Optimus watched as the teen before him literally fell apart, Spark clenching. Every time he had fallen apart during the long war he'd had someone there, usually Ratchet or even Ironhide, understanding with a comforting touch. It was hard to work for others, always thinking about them, giving little thought to yourself even when it was you being affected just as much, if not more than the others. He'd done the same for Ratchet on several occasions, the Medic feeling surprisingly similar, and he couldn't stop himself from imagining that Miles' did too, the teen in charge of everything that he had set up so that others wouldn't be affected, but nothing to stop stuff from happening to him.

It was always strange to touch in holoforms, a body you weren't used to, but the humans were so similar to them, and Optimus just couldn't stop himself from moving, reaching out and pulling the teen against his chest, holding him close as Miles let out a choked sob. Optimus knew he should be giving thought to whether his mechs were actually managing to explain the sticky situation to Sam and Bumblebee, but he couldn't bring himself to care at the moment, focusing entirely on trying to hold Miles together.


	4. Realizations and Talks

**AN: **Thanks to all who reviewed, and sorry for the long wait!

**_Chapter Four  
><em>****_Realizations and Talks_**

* * *

><p>Ratchet was still trying to figure out what exactly to say and whether or not he should lie for Miles' sake five minutes later, an angry Sam and a bewildered Bumblebee watching the Medic the whole time. Sam was still in Bumblebee's servo, and the Scout had one optic ridge raised as if to emphasize the fact that the two of them were waiting for an explanation. But Ratchet didn't have one right away, and a quick look at Ironhide revealed that the usually blunt Weapons Specialist was just as awkward about it as the Medic. So Jazz decided to pick up the slack.<p>

"Well, it turns out tha' Mistah Lancastah don't really dig Miles that much, hence the black eye and stuff, ya dig? But Missus Lancastah is apparently all for him, s'pose thas why he ran away since she's got a bun in the oven. Ah read this book, A Child Called It, and Primus, some of ya humans ah seriously messed up if ya can do that to ya sparklings. Just makes me wanna cuddle him close, ya kno-"

"_What?_" Sam asked sharply, cutting off Jazz before he could continue rambling.

"Jazz!" Ratchet hissed, sending the revived Saboteur a look that promised pain, before looking back at Sam and Bumblebee. "As difficult to understand as that was, Jazz is right. We have found out that Miles is abused by his mech parental unit, and had been planning to run away. We found him and brought him here before he could, however, and we do not plan on allowing him back to spend time alone with Mr. Lancaster."

"Oh, God."

Ironically enough, it was Bumblebee who mumbled the human sentiment, though he neither believed in the human Christian God referred to as Jesus, the holy spirit, God, or whatever other name, a strong believe in Primus, but it seemed to fit. Sam had started saying Cybertronian phrases like slag and pit, even uttered Primus a few times, and without even thinking about it Bumblebee was starting to do the same. Shit, damn, hell instead of slag, frag and pit. God instead of Primus.

But Bumblebee had known that something odd was going on, he'd just never thought it had been anything like _that_. Mikaela had explained to him, without Sam there, that Miles' story of Trent didn't make out, and Bumblebee had done some minor research on it, if nothing else but to reassure himself that the jock wouldn't strike out at Sam next. He'd discretely followed Trent around for a while to make sure the jock was nowhere near Miles, and sure enough, Miles still ended up using the jock as an excuse.

Bumblebee had left it at that, because what did he care, really? Sam was content to believe this, as it did nothing but cement his hate for the jock, and the Scout just figured that maybe Miles had some odd friends. He'd seen Sam and Miles fight before, wrestle around and bite and hit each other, for nothing more than fun, and to a certain extent he could understand that. Practicing with Ironhide was always fun, if the mech wasn't in a bad mood. And Miles was rarely around the Scout, Sam paranoid that somehow he'd find out, along with the fact that the two seemed to be seeing less and less of each other. Had it been Sam or Mikaela, Bumblebee would have gone to whatever means necessary to find out who dared hurt his Charges like that. But Miles wasn't his Charge, hadn't even known about him, and it was hard to care about someone you never talked to. So Bumblebee didn't.

"Ah think Ah broke them," Jazz shuttered his optics, looking at the two. Sam just stood frozen in Bumblebee's servo, torn between disbelief and the realization of what he should have seen years ago. Bumblebee was doing much the same, faceplates mirroring what Sam and he were feeling almost exactly, except it was months ago instead of years ago, and he didn't feel the horror for it as deeply as Sam did.

"That's a lie," Sam finally muttered in disbelief, though even then he sounded unsure about it. "He would have told me!"

"And why would he have told you, boy?" Ironhide asked, bending to look at Sam face to face.

"Because I'm his best friend! That's huge; you don't keep something huge from your best friend!"

"Oh, so you went and told him about us then, did you?" Sam didn't respond, couldn't, and Ironhide was expecting that. "He meant to protect you just like you meant to protect him, and now both things are out."

Sam just stared up at Ironhide speechless, and Ratchet vented heavily. So much for Jazz and Ironhide letting him do the talking, but at least if Miles got angry about it Ratchet got off.

* * *

><p>The whole thing only lasted five minutes, and it made Optimus wonder if Miles had ever broken down before just to pick himself up immediately so no one would see. But he never stopped holding Miles until he stopped crying, and even a bit past that, too. He only broke the silence when Ratchet sent him a comm, informing him that Bumblebee and Sam now knew of at least Miles' situation with his father, though he left whether or not the rest had been explained out.<p>

"Ratchet has sent me a comm," Optimus said gently, once the teen did nothing but sniffle a bit. "It would appear that Sam and Bumblebee now know."

He could feel Miles tense up at the news, but he relaxed quicker than the Prime would have guessed. Miles finally moved from the embrace himself, scrubbing at his eyes before taking a deep breath and giving a sheepish, almost shy, smile.

"Guess I gotta go face the music, huh?" Miles asked somewhat sarcastically, hopping off the berth before Optimus could stop him. "Thanks."

"You will never have to thank me for that, Miles." Optimus responded, and Miles shot him a grin before leaving the Medbay.

Miles didn't wait for Optimus to follow, but then again he didn't need to. The Prime easily caught up to the teen, and thought about offering him some Advil for his nose, but Miles didn't ask for it, so it either didn't hurt that bad or Miles just didn't care. The teen headed straight for where they had all originally been standing, and if Optimus hadn't been paying attention he never would have noticed the slight slump to the teen's shoulders. He wasn't excited for what was about to come, but he knew it needed to be done, and he was going to do.

When they got there, Bumblebee was just setting Sam on the ground, and silently, without the Prime having to ask, almost all the mechs left to offer the organics some sort of privacy while still being in ear shot should one of the organics shout. Only Bumblebee stayed, almost like a hovering mother hen because Sam was getting worked up, the only time any of them had ever seen that particular organic close to tears outside of pain or the Old Yeller movie, but even he moved back when Optimus sent him a comm.

Which left Miles and Sam staring at each other, one looking at the other with tears in his eyes and unsure what to say, the other having too much to say but nothing that would come out.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Sam asked finally.

"I don't know…" Miles replied honestly, "At first, when we were little, it was because I didn't know you that well and I didn't want you to think I was weird, because I knew normal fathers didn't do that, so I always thought it had to be me. And then it was just easier to keep lying, because I didn't know how you'd react and I didn't want you to get hurt because of it."

"You're worried about me getting hurt by it?" Sam asked in disbelief.

"Well you are, aren't you?"

"I was worried sick about you; I thought something horrible had happened to you! Then I find out something horrible has been happening to you all along and I was just too stupid to notice!" Sam's voice cracked, bowing his head so Miles wouldn't see his tears. "I-I'm so sorry!"

"Oh, God, please don't cry." Miles almost begged, "You blubber like a fucking baby every time you cry."

"I do _not_!" Sam denied, but it was true. Once he started to cry he just couldn't stop, which was exactly why he tried not to cry, especially around Mikaela. He wiped furiously at his eyes, trying not to start. "Shut up and just let me be sad and angry like I want!"

"Sure, that's easy." Miles said, deciding he was fed up with being sad and watching Sam be sad, so it was time to liven things up a little. "Just look in a mirror."

Sam's head shot up, fire in his eyes, and Miles took a step backwards without even noticing. Miles almost yelped when he was pulled into a bear hug, leaving him surprised for a minute, before he finally hugged back.

"How long?" Sam's voice was muffled; his face in Miles' shoulder, but Miles got the gist of it.

"Longer than I've known you." Miles uttered softly, hating the way he felt Sam tense up, and the way he could start to feel his shirt soak with warm tears. He had to say something to try to make Sam feel better, so he continued. "It's not always hitting, and it's not always bad words. He does have his real decent moments, but now with Mom pregnant… could you imagine her finding out? She'd be devastated. And he has been getting a bit worse, but he's been stressed because mom keeps getting sick all the time with the baby comin' along, you know how weak she is, so it's not like-" Miles realized he was defending his father, and cut himself off, trying to back off from the hug automatically. "It's not been that bad, honest. It's just, with everything, I thought… that I could just disappear. You had Mikky, and the whole government thing, which I now know is the Autobots, but I thought you'd get over it eventually, and then Mom'd have a new baby to worry over and be distracted from me, so… I'm sorry."

"Don't you _dare_ apologize, Miles Lancaster!" Sam hissed, pulling Miles closer and refusing to let go. "I'm the one who should be saying sorry! Now just shut up and let me love you!"

* * *

><p><em><strong>:Ten hours watch duty says Miles trahs ta liven' it up a lil' and gets Sameh to laugh.: <strong>_Jazz sent to all of them, amusement brightening his visor.

Ratchet glared at the Saboteur, _**:You don't even have watch duty yet, and you shouldn't even be leaving the Medbay! You just came back!:**_

_**:Exactly, Ratch! Lemme live a little!: **_Jazz slid his visor up and grinned, turning to Bumblebee, who was looking off in the other direction, trying to see through the building they had put between them and the teens. _**:Do Ah get my hug now, lil' Bee?:**_

_**:Of course, Jazz!: **_Bumblebee laughed, going over and hugging the resurrected mech. _**:It's great to see you back again! Ratchet was taking so long getting the piece of the Cube to work that I'd almost given up hope!:**_

_**:Ratchet never did manage to get it to work,: **_Ironhide said with a smirk, earning a glare from said Medic. _**:The organic was the one who got it to work.:**_

_**:Miles did?: **_Bumblebee asked with surprise, _**:What does that mean?:**_

_**:You're just as clueless as we are, Bumblebee.: **_Optimus finally spoke up, _**:We were woken up around one in the morning by Jazz, quite surprised to see him. Apparently Miles received a vision of Jazz's death in his dreams and couldn't sleep because of it, so he decided to go and explore the one place on base I had yet to show him, which was where we were holding Jazz. Th -: **_The Prime cut himself off when they all heard Sam scream.

"_LET ME LOVE YOU!"  
>"GET AWAY FROM ME YOU FREAK!"<em>

Ratchet and Ironhide shuttered their optics in surprise, Optimus looked slightly worried, and Jazz was just confused. All turned to stare at Bumblebee when the Scout made a pleased sound.

"That means they're getting along again," Bumblebee said aloud, mainly to reassure his Prime.

Jazz snorted, "Organics ah weird."

"You'll get used to it fairly quickly, Jazz." Bumblebee was speaking from experience there. At first, he had been amazed by some of the stuff Sam and Mikaela did. Now he didn't even shutter an optic at the stuff. "Now are you saying that the shard actually controlled him?"

"Yes," Optimus was a bit reluctant to continue, now the one looking at the building between them and the organics worriedly. "He said that when he picked it up it started to burn and he heard Megatron and Jazz, so he wanted to drop it, but it wouldn't let him. It moved him on to the berth instead, and over Jazz's spark chamber, where it made him drop it inside. We have no explanation as to why it chose him to do it organic wise, or why it would choose an organic at all. Ratchet, and even I, had tried to use it before to resurrect Jazz, but to no avail."

"Huh." Bumblebee said simply, just as stumped by the shard's actions as the rest of them. He decided to go for an easier topic, now. "Ratchet said Miles was attempting to run away. Is that true?"

"It is. I found him, and figured out what was going on quickly. I… Well, I-"

"What our glorious leader is trying to say," Ratchet cut Optimus off with annoyance coating his voice, "Is that once he figured out Miles was abused, he knocked him out with that gas and brought him here."

"Optimus _kidnapped_ Miles?"

"Nah, Bee. Boss 'bot just drugged 'im up a lil' and didn't give Miles a choice as to whether or no' 'e wanted ta come. Thas no' kidnapping at all," Jazz deadpanned, causing Bumblebee to laugh. "But at least 'e doesn't wanna adopt 'im like Ironhide."

"I was saying that figuratively!" Ironhide growled in his defense, "What would I do with my own organic?"

"What, Will isn't yours?" Ratchet questioned innocently, "Oh, right, you're his. Always forget that the lost looking turbopuppy here whenever he leaves is you and not some other pain in the slagging aft."

"You shut your mouth, Medic!"

"Now, you two, there's no reason to fight." Optimus tried to soothe, going to step between his Medic and Weapons Specialist before a real fight could break out.

Jazz and Bumblebee stood back, watching the scene before them. Ratchet and Ironhide throwing petty insults back and forth while trying to get at each other and Optimus trying to get them to behave. Jazz started to laugh, opening a private comm with the younger Scout.

_**:It's good ta be back, Bee!: **_Jazz said joyfully, clapping the smaller mech on the back.

:_**It's great to have you back, Jazz.:**_ Bumblebee grinned at the Saboteur, _** :Now, is that betting pool on Ironhide and Ratchet still going on? I'm finally starting to see what all of you have been talking about!:**_

_**:There's a few,: **_Jazz responded,_** :Gonna have to be a bit more clear, lil' Bee. Do you mean the finally having enough and killing each other, Optimus or Prowl finally having enough and separating them or killing them, or the two finally having enough and fragging each other senseless?:**_

_**:The last one.:**_

_**:Ah, welcome to the dark side of the betting pool, lil' Bee!:**_

* * *

><p>A few hours later and Optimus was only mildly surprised when Miles found him and flopped down beside him with a tired huff. The Prime was on a hill, which was more rock than sand. He had a nice view here, somewhat secluded from base but able to get to it quickly if he needed to. He could also see the road from here, and had seen Bumblebee driving off; getting a comm to explain the mech was going with Sam to buy Miles something to eat besides granola bars.<p>

"You did not go with Bumblebee and Samuel?" Optimus inquired, glancing down at the teen.

"I think my quota for Sam has passed full and needs fixed," Miles deadpanned.

"Ah, yes. We did hear him scream a few times." Optimus informed the teen, trying not to sound as amused as he felt.

Miles snorted, "Sam's always gone a bit overboard when it comes to fixing things emotion wise. I think he gets it from Judy; both of them just go crazy loving at some point. You might have escaped so far, because he's not that close to you yet, but no one's safe forever from him."

"Or his mother." Optimus responded, causing Miles to laugh.

"You've met her, then?"

"Yes, it was quite interesting, to say the least." Optimus said dryly, "The first human who's ever dared to threaten me with a bat even when they knew what I was."

"Oh, man, I wish I would have been there to see it. That's priceless!" Miles snickered, sitting upright finally. "I'm guessing one of the 'bots has a vid?"

"Yes. All three, I believe." Optimus grinned at the teen's amusement, pretending to vent softly. "It's insubordinance, I say."

"And that's only with three of them," Miles smirked, "What are you going to do when more arrive?"

"If more arrive, I am hoping my Seccond in Command comes fi-"

"If?" Miles repeated, cutting the Prime off. "Ratch said that you sent a phone call into space or some crap. Why if?"

"It is hard to get a message to go past your solar system," Optimus really did sigh now, "And we do not have the right equipment to boost the signal. As of now we can only hope that one of ours will stumble across it and come towards it, while sending the message on to others."

"Why don't you try using the shard thingy?" Miles asked, peering up at the Prime.

"I doubt the shard would respond if asked to do something so menial." Optimus shrugged lightly, a human gesture that he and his mechs had adopted.

"That's a bit presumptuous of you, don't cha think? Who are you to say what the shard will and won't respond to?" Miles questioned, "Maybe that's why it didn't work with Jazz. Did you ask, or did you just assume it would work on him?"

"Well, we assumed… The Allspark was the life giver of our planet, and I'd heard tale of it being used to bring back a couple of mechs before."

"Ratch said it was an intelligence all on it's own. Maybe it can expand beyond sparklings and resurrection." Miles offered this up for thought, "It might want to help bring your people here."

"Indeed…" Optimus was nearly speechless. Miles was right, and of course it had to be an organic who pointed out his flawed thinking. Now he was getting excited, turning to Miles. "Where was the shard when you saw it last? Would you get it for me?"

"Sorry, dude, but I ain't touching that thing again." Miles grumbled, "So done with freaky alien shit."

"I am not included in that?" Optimus asked with some amusement, raising an optic ridge.

"Nah. As long as you don't kidnap me for a second time, we're all good." Miles grinned, "Besides, I'm not exactly sure. I thought I dropped it in Jazz's spark chamber, but now that I think about it when I turned back I think I saw it on the floor again. You can check both of those places all you want."

"I think if it's with Jazz it's going to stay there..." Optimus said, more to himself than Miles, but the teen nodded anyway.

"Speaking of staying, are you ever going to explain to me how exactly I'm supposed to be staying here? Sam wants to know, too. He called this Lennox dude and apparently the guy had no idea who I even was. Said he was coming in to see what was going on."

Optimus' optics widened, and he revved his engine in a sort of embarrassed cough. "We have yet to contact anyone about you. I believe Captain Lennox will be having a few strong words with us."

"Is that alien code for we pissed of our parents and are about to be grounded?"

"Close enough, unfortunately."


	5. The Captain and The Sergeant

**AN: **Got the meaning of NEST from , just search for it. Seen a couple different answers, but I'll go with what it says.  
><strong>Reviews:<strong> Thanks for all the reviews!

* * *

><p>Sergeant Robert Epps was determined to find the civilian who had ruined his nice, relaxing holiday before Will did, if only so he could strangle the little brat himself. Thank God that Sam let slip that he knew the little civilian the Autobots had picked up, because that meant he could text the boy's girlfriend and ask her stuff about the civi. He'd already gotten the basic facts from Mikaela, who he'd been texting.<p>

So he knew a few things. The civi's name was Miles and he was a brat like Sam. In fact, according to Mikaela, the two were friends. Went to the same school, the same grade, the same age. It had taken Mikaela a few texts to figure out who Epps was talking about, given that he didn't know much more than it was a guy, around Sam's age, and apparently had been there for a few days. He was somewhat happy he'd been talking to her through text instead of on the phone, though, because the girl had sounded angry at the civi for some reason.

Epps got to the Autobot base first, and the first place he went, instead of finding the civilian, was the little room next to the Medbay that the Autobots had been using to hold their dead comrade. He was never quite sure if it was supposed to be their morgue or a storage room, since it tended to be used for both, but he never really asked for clarification. Epps only half believed them when they said Jazz was back, though the Autobots would have no reason to lie.

And as it would turn out this was a good choice, because the civilian was in there. He couldn't exactly figure out what the kid was trying to do, though. He was under the berth that Jazz's body had been on, looking to be reaching for something on the ground and ready to pick it up with this rag he was using as something to block direct contact with his skin, but he was hesitating.

"Miles, right?" Epps asked, trying not to laugh when the teen jumped, whirling and staring at him with wide eyes. It definitely had to be the civi, he doubted any of the Autobots would make their holoforms look damaged without a good reason, and this kid looked like he'd gone a round with someone and ended up on the bad end of it. "I'm Sergeant Robert Epps, but you can just call me Epps."

"Uh, nice to meet you, dude. Could you pick that up for me?" Miles asked, pointing to this object Epps could barely see.

Miles had decided, what with Optimus and the other Autobots now being distracted by the threat of this Lennox dude, that he'd just pop in the little room Jazz had been kept in to check for the shard. Sure enough, it was there, lying under the berth, but he had no intention of picking it up barehanded. So he grabbed a rag instead, but just as he went to pick it up Epps scared the shit out of him. Up until he whirled around, to run away, he'd thought the shard was making noise again and was about to do something to him. Again.

Miles was so not up to deal with the magic doohickey just yet, so he asked Epps to pick it up. Epps walked over to the teen, then over to where he pointed at, noticing a shard of something reflecting in the light. It was tiny and easily overlooked, and the Sergeant picked it up, examining it curiously. It didn't take him long to figure out to what the small piece belonged to, having seen the bigger, and whole, version of it up close and personal before. It was a piece of the Allspark shard, something he'd heard Optimus say they had, though neither he or Will had been allowed to see it at the time. And now here he was, holding it. He would have felt a little happy if Miles didn't look half afraid of the little thing.

"It's a piece of metal, kid." Epps pointed out, "It ain't gonna bite you."

"That's what you think…" Miles muttered, and Epps stared at him for a moment before shrugging it off. He'd gone a bit weird after the Autobots, too. Once, about a week after Mission City when he had still been too hyped up to sleep, he had thought his toaster was a Decepticon because it kept burning his toast.

"What do you want this for?" Epps asked, holding the piece of Allspark out to him, though Miles just shook his head no. "You know what this is, right?"

"Yeah, I do. Optimus wanted to see if it could boost the signal enough to send the message out further into space," Miles explained shortly, and it was a good thing that Epps was in the loop, because otherwise he would have been completely lost.

"If my Captain doesn't have his metal balls for you, first." Epps snorted, "You practically scream trouble."

"I'm sorry?" Miles blinked at him in a surprised manner, and Epps grinned.

"Hippie hair," Epps reached out and flicked some of the blonde locks that were falling into the kid's face, making Miles make go cross eyed and then frown at him. "And what the hell even happened to your face?"

"Well, some of it is Sam. He got mad and punched me in the face. Nose, to be precise…" Miles said, shrugging.

"_Sam_ got angry?" Epps asked in disbelief.

"I know, right?" Miles laughed, "I think that was the first time I've ever seen him legit pissed at me, and believe me, I don't plan on seeing it again."

Epps shook his head, "We're talking about the same kid, right? My Sam can't even watch Shaun of the Dead without being afraid."

"He sucks at horror movies," Miles snickered a bit, "Just makes him the perfect target for after, or whenever. Just standing behind a door, not saying anything, and letting him see you will scare the crap out of him."

"Really?" Epps smirked, "Sounds like I'm not going to be missing that much fun time from vacation, then."

"Vacation?" Miles asked curiously.

"Yeah, we're on leave, or were on leave…" Epps noted the confused expression on the teen's face, "You do know we work here, right?"

"Well, kinda." Miles gestured to his clothes, "I knew I was borrowing these clothes from someone, but the Autobots are really bad about not going into detail, and I was a bit more interested in them than a fellow Homo sapien."

Epps nodded sympathetically, he would have been the same way had he been a civi. "Well, I told you who I am, and then my Captain, William Lennox, will be here in a bit, too. There are more of us, of course, but as we fought directly alongside the Autobots in Mission City and dealt with that damned Scorpion thing, me and Will are in charge of NEST. NEST stands for Non-biological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty, and we're basically the summation of it. We hold the Autobot's hands for American, and sometimes world, affairs, and try to get them and the world to understand each other a little bit better. The Autobot's liaisons and such, if you want. This includes a shit ton of paperwork, little action outside of Ratch's and Hide's yelling matches, and so much government mumbo jumbo my head hurts just thinking about it."

"Mm," Miles made a small noise in the back of his throat. "You make that sound awesome and awful at the same time. Optimus already admitted that this Captain Lennox is the big wizard who can ground them. Does that make you guys birds and the Autobots your flock?"

"That was a rather fowl joke." Epps tried his hardest to keep a straight face, but Miles burst out laughing at the bad pun, and the Sergeant grinned, laughing himself.

Something had to be up with the teen if the Autobots took him in, and Sam punching him only really explained the nose, and what looked like it could go towards a newly formed black eye or just fade away before it got to serious, a sign from the nose most likely, since the other eye was already bruised before it, as far as he could tell. He doubted it had anything to do with the Decepticons, seeing as the Autobots wouldn't have hesitated to inform them on such a manner, but yet they hadn't said a word about this civi.

But Epps decided he could wait until Will got there and talked to Optimus to find out what exactly. His Captain was pissed, mainly because he had to leave his wife and daughter early, but also because paperwork sucked big time, and when it came to surprises from the Autobots they were never good. He'd have to make sure that Will got to the Autobots before he got to Miles, just in case the Captain was too annoyed to go easy on the civi.

"Should we go turn this in to my little chick?" Epps questioned with a grin, and Miles snickered and nodded.

The Sergeant led the way out of the room, Miles following close behind, but running in to his back when Epps froze. Will had just pulled up, was even climbing out of his jeep, and looked ready to come right towards them, a look that even Megatron might fear on his face. A quick glance around revealed Bumblebee, the Scout seeing the same thing he did, but the Autobot was just far away enough to be no help.

So maybe he kind of overreacted, but he wasn't really in the mood to deal with a pissed off Will Lennox. The last time his Captain had been in a seriously bad mood and Epps managed to piss him off he'd ended up with so much paperwork that he hadn't slept for three days straight. His only relief was in the form of Ratchet, the Medic demanding he take a break, which he gladly did.

He grabbed Miles, shoving a hand over the teen's mouth so the kid wouldn't squeak or anything and give their position away, pulling them both into a shadowed corner. It wasn't really effective, but it did the job, seeing as Will didn't see Miles just yet, and it gave time for Bumblebee to call to the Captain and ask how his day was, the Scout looking genuinely pleased to see him. Epps sighed in relief, because the Scout could cheer up anyone, and not even Will could resist him.

Miles inhaled sharply, half ready to give the older man a piece of his mind, because why the hell was everyone overreacting? He'd have to meet Will soon anyway and the man didn't seem _that_ intimidating. And he would have said something, if the hand that Epps had used to cover his mouth hadn't had the piece of the Cube in it, and Miles accidentally inhaled it as he breathed in.

Miles choked on it, swallowing reflexively, and Epps seemed to realize what was happening just as it went down, the Sergeant hissing out an 'oh shit'. Miles would have agreed if he could have brought himself to talk, the shard going down like a piece of chip that had been eaten badly and was too large, making his throat raw, and making him swallow more just to try to get it down. But it wouldn't go down, too large for the constricting passageway, and Miles nearly panicked before he realized he could still get some air in past it.

"Shit, shit, wait, I'll do the Heimlich, just give me a sec-!" Epps went to grab the boy, but Miles did what he'd always done whenever something was too large and stuck in his throat, like the not so little pills his mom would give him when he was sick with something like the cold, pretending to gulp water instead of swallow.

And it went down, making Miles wince. "Too late."

"Oh. Fuck, right, uh… Try to throw it up!"

"I can't throw up on command!"

"Well then stick your finger in the back of your throat and hit your gag reflex!"

"I don't have a gag reflex!"

"Sonnabitch, kid, really?" Epps groaned, "The first person I meet without a gag reflex and it's a fucking guy _and_ a brat."

Miles made a face, because it wasn't too hard to figure out exactly what the older man was commenting on. He decided to keep the fact that he could fit his hand into his mouth to himself; it had been bad enough when he and Sam had reached puberty and figured out exactly what that could mean.

Epps stared at the younger man wordlessly for a moment, "Well… how bad could it be?"

"Given that it's a part of an alien artifact that was used to make babies and bring the dead to life, and it brought Jazz back even though it's such a small piece of it?" Miles retorted dully, trying not to panic. Where the hell was Optimus or Ratchet when he needed them?

"So does that mean you'll be able to make their babies for them?" Epps asked, trying to make sure the kid didn't panic, but Miles looked horrified instead. He hadn't been told exactly what went down with Jazz being revived, and didn't know that was a bad thing to say.

"Ratchet!"

"Shit, no, don't tell, Ratchet'll have my balls!"

"Fuck that, I want it outta me! He can have your balls on a necklace for all I care!"

"Just let me Heimlich you!"

"Get away from me!"

* * *

><p>"So where is this boy?" Will growled, trying not to grit his teeth.<p>

About four in the afternoon Captain William Lennox's day had taken a spectacular dive. Instead of being at home on leave with his two wonderful, beautiful, ladies, he was now back on the Autobot base, bag packed just in case, despite the fact that he told Sarah he had clothes already there. Which turned out to be a good thing because apparently they'd been letting this civi use his clothes.

He'd met Bumblebee first, the Scout taking him to Optimus. And of course the Medic, the Weapons Specialist, the newly revived Saboteur, and Sam was with the Prime, all of them greeting him, and getting Will introduced to Jazz. That was all well and good, but the Autobots were being annoyingly tightlipped about why there was an unknown civi on base, all five and Sam currently following him as he went in search for the kid.

Hopefully he'd find his wayward Sergeant as well, seeing as Epps had made it there before him but only Bumblebee mentioned spotting him.

"He's right around the corner; his signature's being picked up along with Robert's." Ratchet informed him.

Will stalked around the corner, Optimus and Sam hot on his heels, and froze. Epps was certainly with the unknown civi alright; if the fact that he appeared to be molesting the poor teen was anything to go by. The civi was limp in Epps' arms, not helping the older man support his weight at all, a pained grimace on his face as Epps squeezed his midriff, eyes tightly closed. If Will didn't know the Autobots, and Sam, so well, he would have picked the civi out as a trouble maker. He certainly looked like one with that face. It looked like he had one black eye, another possibly forming, and something had happened to his nose. And the hair. Will had been raised old fashioned, and even in his rebellious days his mother would have never let his hair get that long.

"What the hell are you doing to him, Robbie?" Will hissed, moving forward a bit more.

"The Heimlich!" Epps gave another squeeze, not even looking up. The teen in his arms hissing out something that sounded distantly like several swear words, giving every indication he could breathe just fine.

Will narrowed his eyes, "He's not choking!"

"No, but he needs to throw up! He swallowed the s-!" Epps stopped short when Miles squirmed again, trying to get away now that there was an audience. "Stop squirming, dammit!"

"Swallowed what?" Ratchet asked.

Epps and Miles froze, both looking up to see that the Autobots and Sam were with Will. Epps swallowed hard, looking horrified, but Will noted the teen looked almost relieved to see the Autobots. His Sergeant let the blonde go, and the civi stumbled right towards him, stopping only when hazel eyes fell on Will. Will could practically read the teen's expression in the short second that passed; the teen was sizing him up. He was only slightly surprised, then, when the boy immediately straightened his back, doing his best to mime a respectful posture that he'd never really been taught.

"What's your name, kid?" Will had been told his name, of course, but he'd been too angry to remember it, and better the civi tell him himself.

"Miles Lancaster," Miles hesitated for just a second before tacking on a 'sir'.

Will made sure to stand at his full height, arms behind his back as he narrowed his eyes at the teen. Epps had once said he looked intimidating like this, and intimidating was good. It got answers.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Ironhide's charge, and the Doomsayer, apparently." Miles replied without hesitation.

Will could hear Sam make a choking sound behind him, and behind Miles Epps' eyes had grown two times bigger than normal. Will fought off a grin, instead raising an eyebrow. The blonde wasn't one to be intimidated, that could be seen already, but he was respectful, to an extent, and seemed to be examining Will as much as he was examining him.

"And who told you the last one, kid?" Will asked, trying to keep the stern look on.

"My name is Miles, Captain Lennox. I would appreciate if you called me that."

"Miles, then." Will agreed, slightly taken aback. Maybe he was just used to Sam and Mikaela, who didn't really care what Will called them. "Now, who said I'm the Doomsayer?"

"Well," Miles tossed a glance at Epps over his shoulder, then a glance at each individual Autobot. "You're the man in charge, I guess. You get to ground the bad little kiddies if you don't like their reason for me."

Will had a harder time fighting off a grin at the idea of grounding the Autobots, "And will I like your reason for being with the Autobots?"

"Optimus Prime kidnapped me, I didn't really have a say." Miles shrugged, smirking.

"Could we please not use the term kidnap?" Optimus said immediately, and Will hid a grin behind a fake cough into his hand. The Prime's tone was just too good; he didn't think he'd ever really heard the Prime sound embarrassed. "I prefer the term… Well…"

"Can we just admit you kidnapped the boy and get it over with?" Ironhide growled, "And you, kid, stop making Optimus get flustered. We'll be here all night because of it."

"_Right_," Will said before Miles could reply, shooting a warning glance at Ironhide to tell the mech to shut up. He wasn't sure if the mech used the term 'kid' just to prove he could without Miles saying anything or not, but it was interesting. That could mean a couple of things, but Will was mainly assuming that Miles either didn't have the guts to ask the same of the Autobots, or liked and respected them enough to not mind the slightly disrespectful nickname. "Am I going to like why he kidnapped you?"

It was the first time Miles had truly hesitated the whole conversation, the teen glancing up at Optimus, and Will couldn't tell if he was searching for guidance, or looking for some sort of reassurance. That told him even more than the kid thing had, really. He didn't look to Sam, who Will already knew he went to school with and claimed to be his best friend. He looked to _Optimus_. Will wondered what that could mean, that a teenager, little more than a kid, would look to a being from another planet before he looked to his human best friend.

"He's a father, right?" Miles asked softly, and Will raised both eyebrows at this. A glance behind Miles revealed that Epps was just as lost at the question as he was.

"Yes," Ratchet replied.

"But that doesn't mean-" Ironhide jumped in quickly, almost sounding like he was trying to defend Will, only for Miles to shake his head and the Weapons Specialist to fall silent.

"It can mean everything, sometimes." Miles tossed the mech a toothy grin, before looking back at Will. "I think you'd approve of it, Captain Lennox. You seem like a good man."

"I'd be more inclined to agree with you if I knew the reason," Will commented dryly, wondering what was going on. He turned slightly so he could look at the Autobots and even Sam. Sam and Optimus looked close to speaking for Miles, but both were hesitating, obviously unsure whether it was needed. "From your own mouth, and no more pussy footing around."

"Will-" Sam started worriedly, but Miles waved him away.

"No pussy footing around? Then the short summary: I was running away from home and Optimus picked me up, eventually figuring out that my father abuses me, and brought me here after knocking me out with some gas." Miles said simply, and Will didn't try to look anything but stunned. Then Miles turned his head to look at Ratchet, "Oh, and I just swallowed the Shard. Is there something we can do about that?"

With that, everyone and mech started talking at once.

"_**WHAT?**_" Ratchet was very close to screeching.  
>"What?" Optimus asked in shock, just as Jazz asked: "Does this mean he's gonna make ah Sparklings now?"<br>"That's what I said!" Epps grinned up at the Saboteur, but then he looked to Bumblebee. "That's bad, right?"  
>Bumblebee shrugged helplessly, "There's only four options. He digests it, which I doubt would happen, it passes through him, it somehow manages to stay in his stomach, or we cut it out."<br>"Cut it out?" Miles yelped, "You're not cutting anything outta me!"  
>"Now, Miles, we would not go to such measures just yet." Optimus said gently, trying to calm the teen and picking him up.<br>"I ain't shiftin' through that boys crap, Prime." Ironhide grunted, mostly serious and partly joking.  
>"Ironhide!" Ratchet hissed at the mech, "Have some tact!"<p>

Will was too shell-shocked to think or say anything just yet, but in the next few minutes he wasn't really given the opportunity. Ratchet immediately snatched Miles from Optimus, neither the teen nor the prime protesting, and began scanning him. Optimus hovered just over Ratchet's shoulder, optics flickering in his own scans, though he could never get as in depth as Ratchet. Sam walked up beside Will, giving the shocked Captain a pitying look, despite the fact that he looked mildly disturbed and surprised himself.

"Ignore the crazies, Will." Sam tried to joke, glancing at the blonde in Ratchet's grasp. "Can you do something about Miles staying here? Optimus' hoping you can make it a permanent stay, somehow, with some government mumbo jumbo, so he doesn't have to face his dad again."

"I…" Will scratched the back of his head for a moment, for once at a loss. He could see the hopeful look on Sam's face at the idea, but he had no idea what to say. Epps, however, had some idea what to do. The Sergeant came up on his Captain's other side and tossed an arm around his shoulder, grinning.

"I think it's a damn good thing I made him swallow that shard, then, eh?" Epps asked, but of course, like all horrible things that happened to be overheard, this happened at one of the few moments of silence, all the Autobots now conversing through comm instead. Which meant Ratchet heard Epps perfectly.

"_Made_ him?" Ratchet asked, voice surprisingly calm, but fire in his optics. Not even Ironhide had gotten that particular look yet, and the Weapons Specialist quickly moved on the other side of their Scout just in case he somehow earned the Medic's anger as well.

"Uh…" Epps looked around for someone to rescue him, but both Will and Sam moved as far away as possible, too. "Funny thing, that…"

"Oh, yes, Robert, I do imagine it's very funny." Ratchet growled, "Why don't you explain this occurrence to me so I can enjoy it as well?"

"Ruh-oh, Raggy…" Sam muttered under his breath as Epps attempted to explain what happened, Miles making sure not to help a bit, and Will snickered softly.

The Captain was slightly relieved, though, because at least Epps had found an easy way out for Miles to stay on. Since Miles had swallowed the shard he was technically under threat from all Decepticons, even if they didn't think there were that many, if any, on Earth, and the likelihood of them even being able to figure it out was slim to known. The government, thankfully, was fairly ignorant about the Autobots, something Will used to his advantage. That only left two problems for him: finding out why the hell they weren't just turning the bastard father in, and if the shard could possibly affect Miles in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Hide?" Will called, walking towards the Weapons Specialist. "Why aren't we just turning his father in?"<p>

"As much as I would love to, William, it is complicated." Ironhide growled a bit, "The boy does not wish for us to do so, as it would upset his mother, who is pregnant. Ratchet and Optimus agree with the boy for some reason, because of some psychological crap the Medic spouted."

"And what do you think?" Will frowned, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I think that there is no need now that he is with us. We would not allow the father to hurt him anymore, and Optimus has seemed to grow quite attached to him." Ironhide picked his charge up, "I was the one who suggested 'adopting' him in the first place, if Optimus liked him enough to kidnap him. And now the shard's reacted to him when it wouldn't work for anyone else _and_ your Sergeant was stupid enough to make him swallow it."

"Gives us the easy excuse of Decepticon threat, though."

Ironhide grunted, "It won't be so easy if the Decepticons really catch wind of it, though. Or if it somehow reacts badly and harms the boy."

"Way to be an optimist, there, Hide." Will grinned, patting the mech on the arm.

"I'm a realist, Will."

"No, you're just optimistic about kicking Decepticon ass." Will smirked as his mech rolled his optics.

"There's that, too." Ironhide agreed after rolling his optics, "It's been too long since they acted up. It worries me."


	6. How the Organic Adopts a Decepticon

**AN: **Sorry for the wait guys. Now you get a long chapter to make up for it! Thanks for the reviews X)

* * *

><p>Two days had passed. That meant Miles had spent four days on the Autobot base. The second day, or night going into day, he had brought back Jazz, dealt with Sam, and met the soldiers. It was almost as eventful as the first day, finding out that Orion was actually a giant robot, one from outer space no less. The third day had been spent mostly with Ratchet, Sam, and the soldiers. Ratchet so he could be checked over, Sam to help kidnap him and keep him away from the Medic, and the soldiers needed to get to know him.<p>

The fourth day had been the best, in his opinion. He'd spent a large part of it in Optimus' cab, just listening to the Prime talk. He found out why Bumblebee's vocalizer sometimes cut out or got staticky, how the war started, what Cybertron was like before the war, and more. It had been going perfectly until Ratchet had managed to find them, but the ensuing chase was almost worth how mad the Medic 'bot had been.

The past four days had been heaven. And now? Now Miles was back in Tranquility, having been personally escorted by Bumblebee. He got to ride in the back of the Scout with Sam, Will pretending to drive. This was of course the part the teen had been dreading most, having to face his parents after dropping contact like he had. At least Will would lie and say that Miles got involved in government business, instead of government business finding him on the run and getting involved with him.

Whether the whole Cybertronian thing would be explained to his parents, Miles wasn't sure. But he at least counted on the Captain to be civil to his father. He'd had a talk with the man, explained his feelings towards his father. It was a lot more open than Miles had ever wanted to be, not even Optimus had gotten the privilege of that particular talk, but it needed done. He didn't hate his father, couldn't begrudge him whatever anger he had towards his mother's affair and then him boing born, and his father could be downright decent most days, but… He didn't want a sibling born into that, didn't want his father's hate to feed off having a child of his own and grow worse. And he was almost 18; it was time to get out of there anyway.

That didn't mean he was going to be there when Will talked to his parents. He took the opportunity to grab his Mastiff and take him to the Witwicky household. Miles knew that his mother couldn't handle the large dog on a good day, and it would take some training to make sure the Mastiff could behave around a baby. Mason was a great dog, but he'd never been around a baby or kid before, and Miles knew his mother would worry otherwise. Sam could take care of the Mastiff, he'd done it before and Mason liked his friend.

Miles started the trek home, and soon realized the one thing he hadn't bothered to think about just as rain started to pour down. He'd ignored his mother's warning about the news, so he hadn't brought an umbrella with him. The teen groaned, with his luck he'd catch a cold and the shard wouldn't take care of it this time, so he'd be stuck in Ratchet's servos.

"Need a ride?" A voice rang out, and Miles looked to his left to see a police car.

"Yeah, that'd be great, dude." Miles didn't hesitate, unlike when it had been Optimus asking him to get inside. He went over and let himself in the back, smiling at the police officer in the front. "Thanks, it's really starting to pour. I live on 404 Crossbow Drive."

The officer started to drive, and Miles took out his phone to text Sam. His phone wasn't working, however, and that stumped Miles. He didn't think it had gotten too wet, nor had he dropped it, and it had been working fine when Will had him text Ironhide about something. The screen was on but it kept flickering, and he couldn't get a signal at all. He checked his Ipod to find the same result, which made no sense. Maybe they'd gotten more wet than he'd thought and he needed to put them in some rice.

The teen glanced up to gauge how close he was to his house, and realized that the police car wasn't heading toward his house at all. In fact, he was going the opposite direction, heading straight out of Tranquility.

"Dude, no, I'm the other way."

Silence.

"Sir?"

Still no response. The police man in front of him seemed to flicker for a moment, almost fading out of existence, before coming back. The teen stared in surprise, and then realized with growing dread that he probably shouldn't have gotten in the police cruiser. Phone and Ipod not working, a man who certainly didn't seem real, and what did that point to? Cybertronian. But all the ones he knew of were on base, or with Sam, so that meant this was one that Miles hadn't met yet. Which wasn't a good thing, because Optimus had only mentioned one other Cybertronian on Earth, and that was a Decepticon.

"You're Barricade, aren't you?" Miles kept his voice low, not even looking at the man as he asked the question, just looking in the rearview mirror. The only response he got was the holoform dissolving completely.

Miles knew that he could have tried to run, could have unbuckled and tried to open the door, but he also knew that the likelihood of that succeeding was slim to none. It was better if he cooperated; he'd learned that from his father. When someone was bigger and stronger it was best to listen to them and seem like you wanted to please them. It left you the opportunity to talk to them, and as often as that didn't work, it also left an opening for escape when whoever wasn't expecting it.

* * *

><p>"Why am I here?"<p>

Miles figured that two hours of being silent should have won him some questioning. If he was right, Barricade would be surprised that he hadn't asked a thousand and one questions already, and it would make the 'con curious, perhaps even receptive enough to answer. Or maybe the 'con would have been willing to talk right away, the teen honestly had no idea, but then again there was no way for him to be able to do, and it was safer to try to take the route that would anger Barricade the least.

"I sense the power of the Allspark in you, organic." Barricade's voice drifted out of the speakers in the front, and the Decepticon sounded tired. "I intend to find out why so I can access that energy."

"Oh, I can tell you why…" Miles hesitated, knowing it was best to be honest because if he was caught lying that'd be horrible, but the honesty might anger the 'con. "I don't think you'll be able to tap it, though."

"And why not?"

Miles stared at his hands, "It's inside of me. Through a stupid reason I really don't want to bother going into, I swallowed it. It's been in me for about two days now, and the Chief Medical Officer, Ra-"

"I know the Autobot Medic, fleshling." Barricade growled, "I guarantee that I know all of the ones you can list better than you do and more on top of them. Get to the _point_."

"Er, right, well, Ratchet's been scanning me continuously since the incident and the piece of the Allspark I swallowed hasn't moved at all, nor does it seem that I've started to digest it. It's just sitting there." Miles glanced up from his hands to the dash, reading the time that glowed on there.

"Then I guess I'll just have to cut it out of you."

Miles tried his hardest to not react to that. His father would have looked for a reaction, looked for fear in response to his words, and the Decepticon was probably fishing for it as well. Barricade wanted him to be scared, and so far Miles had been relatively calm. The teen knew that if he played his cards right he could come out of this mess relatively unscathed; he was smart enough to recognize that Barricade must want something if he was bothering to go after Miles. It would have been obvious that if Barricade could pick up the Allspark shard inside of the teen then the Autobot's would be able to do so as well, which meant that Miles would be protected and looked for.

"I wouldn't," Miles replied, trying to keep his voice neutral. "I was the one who brought back Jazz using the shard. It would not react to Ratchet or any of the Autobots, but the shard not only showed me how Jazz died but it led me to him and used me to bring him back. I think it can't react to Cybertronians anymore, at least not fully. So long on Earth being made to do what Sector Seven wanted… I think it changed the integrity of the Cube, or something. I can't think of any other reason it would react to a human and not any Cybertronian."

"Then I still would not need you. Any human off the street would do. The less they know the better."

"Why do you want the power, Barricade?" Miles got to the question that they'd both been waiting on. "Maybe I could help you."

"I owe a debt to someone, fleshling." Barricade stopped, but a glance out the tinted window revealed nothing to Miles by way of his location. There were tons of trees, and trees were abundant in every single direction going away from Tranquility. "We Cybertronians take our debts seriously, especially when somemech or femme saves our life."

"The shard brought back Jazz, it might be willing to bring back whoever it is you're wanting to be brought back." Miles said placatingly, seeing the Decepticon in a bit of a better light.

"I doubt it wants to bring Megatron back, but it might be coerced into doing so." Barricade vented, and Miles could feel a blast of cold air hitting him in the face, and coupled with the cold shock of fear from the Decepticon's words, he shivered. "If the shard has picked you as a conduit, I highly doubt it will want you suffering on it's account."

* * *

><p>It hadn't taken long for Sam to figure out that something had happened to his friend to keep him at bay, and the teen had assumed it was the rain. He'd gone with Bumblebee to search for Miles to see if he'd taken shelter in any of the buildings on the way back from his house. Will, however, had tried to call Miles to no response, and when he'd asked Ironhide to locate the teen's cellphone signal the Weapons Specialist had been unable to, even with Jazz's help. That was a bad sign, one of the worst possible, because even with Miles' phone turned off they'd put a tracker in it, just like they'd done for Sam.<p>

And that was why he had Bumblebee come with Sam and take them back to base, meeting up with Ironhide and finding the Prime. Will looked over at his Guardian, and then back at the Prime. "We have to tell him."

"Tell me what?" Optimus asked, an optic ridge raising. "What is causing all of you to act so oddly?"

"The boy's missing, Optimus." Ironhide said shortly, shifting out of his alt mode to stare his Prime in the face. "And I don't think he'd run again, do you?"

"There's no way for him to have scrambled his cellphone's signal, Optimus." Will added on, "Someone else has to be doing it. Someone good. Not even Glen can get a location on him that isn't bouncing all over the place."

"What does that mean?" Sam asked.

"It means that someone took him." Will sighed, "Sector Seven was disbanded a month after Mission City. We've gotten several angry anonymous emails from what we believe to be ex-members making threats, and if they picked up on Allspark energy coming off of Miles it would make sense that they'd try to use him as leverage. Outside of Sector Seven, there is only one known Decepticon on Earth that's alive. Barricade. And he was last reported just outside of Tranquility a few days after Mission City, after that he dropped off the radar."

* * *

><p>"Y-you… You're bluffing." Miles swallowed hard, hands tightening into fists. He knew he was taking a leap here, but that didn't fit with Optimus' description of the leader of the Decepticons. Barricade wasn't important enough, as far as Miles knew, for Megatron to pay him any special attention.<p>

"Tell me, fleshling…" Barricade drawled, drawing out what he wanted to say. Miles felt like the 'con was toying with him. "Just what makes you think I'm bluffing?"

"Megatron was the leader of the Decepticons. You're just a Scout, like Bumblebee. You two wouldn't have been that close, I doubt Megatron would care if you lost your life."

"Oh, but isn't the bumbling insect close to the Prime? Optimus would save him."

Miles hesitated at that, "Megatron… Megatron wasn't known for his kindness. It's reported that he and Starscream, his Second in Command, fought more than they got along. If he was going to be kind to anyone it would have been Starscream."

"Starscream would have killed Megatron if he could have gotten away with it; there was no love between the two of them. Megatron kept Starscream close because he was the Air Commander and a backstabbing traitorous pile of slag. My Lord and Soundwave, however, his Third in Command, got along famously."

"The Autobots would have known you were close to Megatron if you had been." Miles decided to take a leap now, ignoring the bit about Soundwave. He didn't recognize that designation, which meant he hadn't been told about Soundwave. "The Decepticons knew that Optimus and Bumblebee were close even so short a time after Bumblebee was found. That's why Megatron tore out his vocalizer in Tyger Pax, to get at Optimus. The Autobots would have found something like that out, used it against Megatron."

"Optimus would never allow them to."

"Optimus would never be allowed to know." Miles glared at the dash now, "Go ahead. Tell me I'm wrong. Is it Megatron you owe that debt to?"

Barricade started to laugh, and Miles blinked. He could feel the Decepticon's frame shaking, and… it just didn't make sense, why would the 'con be laughing? Barricade _was_ toying with him! Miles scowled, if the 'con went to the length of kidnapping him he could at least have the decency to act like a kidnapper and just kill him and bury him or dump him in a lake somewhere after getting the piece of the Allspark out of him, not toy with him for entertainment purposes.

"I can't tell if you're an intelligent organic or you're just stupid enough to talk to me in such a manner." Barricade's laughter died down to a chuckle, "Either way, the only time I've picked up on you being scared is when I mentioned bringing Megatron back."

"Yes, well, from what I know of him…" Miles didn't really want to bother with going into detail about how his dream about Jazz had actually let him live the Saboteur's death, and that meant he'd gotten an up close and personal meeting with Megatron that he wished he could forget. That dream had been more than enough to tell him that the now dead 'con was bad news.

Barricade scoffed, "From what you _know_ of him? You've been fed tales by the Autobots. Of course you'd be biased."

"It's not like you're offering any heartwarming tales about him," Miles pointed out, raising an eyebrow at his reflection in the rearview mirror. "And besides, you've given me nothing to be afraid of."

"I'm a Decepticon and I kidnapped you."

"You haven't done anything that Optimus didn't do."

"…the Prime _kidnapped _you?"

"How do you think I found out about the Autobots?"

"You're joking."

"I wish."

"Do tell." Barricade didn't hesitate in this command at all, and Miles had to fight off a grin. He knew his luck was going to run out at some point, but it didn't look like Barricade was going to be when it happened.

"It's actually very similar to how you picked me up," Miles said thoughtfully. "Except it was night, and I was on the highway a couple hours out of town. Optimus was out there driving and picked me up since it was raining, and for a reason I will never fully understand saw it fit to knock me out with some gas and take me back to the Autobot base. I mean, I know _why_ he thought he was helping, protecting me from being on the run but not making me go on either, but seriously." Miles groaned a little, "And I still thought he was human, right? So I wake up in an unknown place with a fresh pair of clothes on and no idea how I got there. I'm freaking out, right? But I hear him outside arguing with Ratchet so I go to give him a piece of my mind and lo and behold giant fucking robot. After that the cat was out of the bag."

"I imagine that was quite a nice way to find out about my race."

"Oh, yeah, it was a great. Then after that I got to experience how Jazz died and be used to bring him back. Fun!"

Barricade vented by way of snorting, "What I want to know is what could possibly inspire the Prime to kidnap you?"

"Oh, that…" Miles had kept his secret for his entire life. No one outside of him and his father had known, and while his mother might have suspected, he highly doubted that. There were truly times when he and his father could get along fine, which is why the teen couldn't hate him. But now everyone was finding out after keeping it inside for so long. All of the Autobots knew, Sam and the soldiers knew. Miles didn't know how to handle it anymore; it had been easier when he had to deal with it alone.

"Ah." Barricade almost sounded understanding, "So when you said on the run you meant running away."

"Basically." Miles decided to change the topic, "But enough about me. It's not Megatron, so who is it that you want to bring back?"

"I don't actually want to bring anymech back." Miles tried hard not to gap at the amused tone the 'con was using. He had been toying with him, the jerk. "I want the power for my own."

"What for?"

"I'm dying."

* * *

><p>Sam stared out of Bumblebee's windshield as they did their twentieth round of Tranquility. They got sidled with the job of searching for any signs of Barricade, black vehicles with men in suits, or finding anyone who might have last seen Miles. They'd gotten a few people who'd said they saw him taking a dog on a walk, but of course they already knew that Miles was dropping Mason off at Sam's house.<p>

"You don't think he would have run, do you?" Sam asked, chewing on his bottom lip a bit.

"No, Sam, I agree with Will and Ironhide on this matter." Bumblebee replied without hesitation, "From what I've been told by the other 'bots Miles has grown accustomed to their presence quickly, and as he can live on base and still visit his family the situation would be the best one for him. Miles is smart, he wouldn't run from that."

"But that means someone has him, and that's bad, isn't it?" Sam rubbed at the steering wheel absentmindedly, "It's either Barricade, some old members of Sector Seven, or people we don't even know about!"

"I'm actually hoping it's Barricade. I don't think he'd kill Miles, not unless he was sure he could still retrieve the Allspark piece or it's energy."

"Oh, yeah, because he's safe with a Decepticon, Bee."

"Samuel, we both know about Sector Seven and what they used to do. We know what they did to me, how they used the Allspark to make mindless robots. We don't know what they're capable of, but I doubt they'll care much if Miles dies and they lose the Allspark energy. At least Barricade may use him as leverage against us, but there's no way he'd be stupid enough to let Miles die."

Sam stopped rubbing the Scout's steering wheel, frowning out the windshield. "Thanks for the pep talk, Bee. I feel loads better."

* * *

><p>"Dying?" Miles echoed, not even holding back how surprised he was. Barricade growled, and Miles could almost feel the Decepticon's mood shifting from humoring to angry.<p>

"Yes. Because of you _organics_." Barricade spat out the word organics like it was disgusting, "After Mission City I was recuperating from a fight with the Scout. A group of you organics came and cornered me, and pit if I know what they used but it didn't allow me to fight them much."

"What happened?"

"What happened? What do you think happened, fleshling?" Barricade chuckled bitterly, "They ran 'experiments' on me. They infected me with virus after virus to see how much my system could take before it gave out. I don't know how long I was with them, but those c_reatures_ won. I'm dying, my Spark is fading."

Miles didn't know what to say, he just stared at his own reflection in the rearview mirror, feeling bad for the Decepticon. The teen never got a chance to voice this as he felt himself sliding out of the 'con and hitting the ground hard on his ass, watching as Barricade shifted into his bipedal mode to tower over him. The Decepticon loomed over the teen, placing a clawed servo on either side of the smaller body, and snarled.

"Do you have any idea what it's like to be held captive by beings not only two sizes smaller than you but not nearly as strong and by all indications nowhere near as intelligent?! Do you know how embarrassing it is that pit-forsaken organics are the ones to be my downfall after all my years in the Decepticon army evading death like I was made for it?! And I have to do it alone! My partner is dead and I'm stuck here on this pit-forsaken Unicron blessed planet, surrounded by the disgusting organics who are killing me!"

"You don't have to be alone…" This was getting to the point where Miles was actually afraid, had reason to be, but he suspected that it pleased Barricade to some extent. "You could come with me to the Autobots. I'll take you right to their base and Ratchet's the best Medic, he could help you!"

Barricade leaned away from the teen in surprise, shuttering his optics in disbelief. "You think the Autodolts would accept me? And here I thought you were somewhat intelligent!"

"You're all Cybertronians, you're the same race! Before the war started it was the Golden Age and you all got along, Optimus told me about it! Megatron's dead, there doesn't need to be Decepticons and Autobots anymore. You won't have to be alone anymore. There will be mechs who understand you. We can help find the ones who did this to you, maybe if we find out what exactly they did, what they infected you with…"

"You're delusional." Barricade snarled in disgust, righting himself and taking a few steps away from the teen.

"You're not saying no."

"I-"

"Oh, come on." Miles smirked at the 'con, "Can you imagine their faceplates if you drive into base and I just step out of you like nothing odd happened? You could claim me for a Charge, or we could initiate the Treaty of Iacon. That would really throw them for a loop; Ironhide might just randomly combust on the spot. If you're dying at least live it up a little, dude."

Barricade shifted into his alt mode again, popping the driver's side door open for the teen. It was a relief to be out of bipedal mode, though Miles didn't need to know that. It was easier to maintain his alt mode without feeling tired then it was his bipedal one, but he was closer to stasis the longer he was in alt mode.

"Get in," the Decepticon ordered. "It's either death by organics or death by slagging Autodolts, and I chose Autodolts. At least I might be able to take one of them out with me, or die laughing."

* * *

><p>Once they got close enough to the base Miles wasn't too surprised that they had a welcoming committee waiting for them. Barricade wasn't either, and the Decepticon slowed down accordingly to show he wasn't going to attack. It would have been useless for the 'con to attempt to be hostile at the moment anyway, what with Ironhide, Optimus, Jazz, and Ratchet battle ready. Bumblebee stood a little behind the four Autobots with Sam and the soldiers.<p>

Barricade rolled to a stop a safe distance away from the Autobots, and Miles stepped out of the 'con, cheerfully waving at their audience. Barricade shifted into his bipedal form next to the teen, and then picked him up, making a show of carefully cradling him in his servos. Outside of the hum of the Autobot's weapons there was dead silence, and Miles had to be careful to make sure his smile didn't slide into a smirk.

"Miles and I get along quite well, and I'd like to take him as a Charge."

Barricade sounded downright _pleasant_, and the gob smacked expressions on Ironhide's, Ratchet's, and Optimus' faceplates were beautiful. Jazz was too good at his job to let his shock so through, visor down and flashing darkly in confusion, and Bumblebee warbled out his own confusion. Surprisingly enough it was Sam who raced forward past the leading line of Autobots and glared up at Barricade.

"You can't take him as a Charge! You can't even be here; we're going to ki-"

"We initiate the Treat of Iacon," Miles said calmly, cutting off Sam and finally letting himself smirk.

"Alright, who the slag told him about that?" Ironhide snarled, mad that he couldn't hurt the 'con right in front of him without breaking Autobot law. At least while Optimus was there.

Miles pointed at Optimus, and the Prime just gave an unamused look at his Weapons Specialist. "We were talking. It came up. Problem?"

"No, of course not, it's just-"

"Ironhide no smash, Ironhide angry?" Miles supplied helpfully.

"Exactly!" Ironhide agreed, and then did a double take. "Wait, no, you li-"

"You were right," Barricade said finally. "This was worth it. How have you Autodolts managed to survive?"

"Barricade." Optimus' tone brook no arguments, calling the Decepticon's direct attention even as Ironhide sulked over being interrupted again. "Why did you take Miles?"

"According to the organic I didn't do anything you haven't done yourself," Barricade stared at the Prime challengingly. "Less, since I haven't knocked him out."

"Yes, well, the situation called for it." Optimus replied easily, ignoring the way Miles scoffed. "Why are you here?"

"Where else do I have to go?"

_**:Verdict?: **_The Prime sent over his comm, opening a link to all of his 'bots without waiting. He tilted his helm to the side, as if that would better help him to size Barricade up.

_**:I don't like it.**_: Ironhide sent back immediately, his anger evident. _**:He's up to something.:**_

_**:His scans aren't good, Optimus. I don't register any active weapons, and his energy levels are severely low. Almost to a stasis level.: **_Ratchet looked at every mech with a Medic's optic as long as it wasn't in a battle situation, and not even Ironhide would go against him on that. The Weapons Specialist had done it once, the mech in question had died, and Ratchet had then proceeded to kick Ironhide's aft and lay him up in the Medbay with a broken hip strut. _**:Look at him, he's not ready for a fight at all. I don't think he could fight even if he wanted to.:**_

_**:I agree with Ratchet, Optimus.: **_Bumblebee added, and they all ignored Ironhide's grumble that followed it. _**:I've fought Barricade before, and unless he's learned and incorporated entirely new tactics, then this isn't him looking for a fight.:**_

_**:Ah think if Mahls is ahdoptin' 'im then we should welcome 'im!: **_All optics turned to Jazz immediately.

_**:WE ARE NOT ADOPTING A PIT-FORSAKEN DECEPTICON!:**_

Ironhide was firmly ignored by all of them, and Jazz continued, visor flashing with amusement. _**:Think about i'. Barricade ca' give us some info on the 'cons that we don' have! If he's on our side he's no' on their side, mah mechs. One less lahf lost, who knows how many saved? An' Ah thin' Ah trust Mahls judgment. 'E brought meh back. Ah at least owe 'im friendliness to a 'con Ah coul' kill in mah sleep.:**_

_**:The least we should do is make sure he can't contact the rest of the Decepticons, then.: **_Ironhide growled, and all optics shot to him in surprise. Two protests and he was done?

_**:Ironhide, what's your internal temperature?:**_

_**:I do not have a virus, Medic!: **_Ironhide glared at Ratchet, _**: The 'con is defenseless here. Even Bumblebee could take him easily enough, and we'll keep an optic on him. As much as I love kicking Decepticon aft… This war has been going on too long. We've all lost mechs, seen some go to the opposite side, killed some old friends. We've lost our planet. We've torn each other apart. I'm tired of it.:**_

They all were, but it was rare for any of them to admit it. It was dangerous for a mech to allow himself to become worn down by all that they'd been through, each of them had seen mechs who had just stopped living, who just couldn't deal with it anymore. Something had to change, and they all knew it. They couldn't continue on the way they had been since leaving their planet. They'd tear apart Earth, and most likely there'd come a time when none of them would be left. The Allspark was destroyed, and it's energy in a human. There was nothing to fight over anymore.

Bumblebee looked between all of them, _**:I guess we got ourselves a 'con then. Who wants to break the news?:**_

_**:You're kidding, right?: **_Ratchet asked humorlessly, _**:Miles already knows. I suspect Barricade does as well.:**_

_**:Either way, it is a courtesy, and we would do well to not give Barricade any reason to fear. As easily as we might find it to take him out there are still five organics here to consider.: **_Optimus sent, before closing his side of the link, his optics shifting back onto Barricade and Miles. "You're in."

Miles cheered, and Will came up to the group relatively unnoticed. He had stayed with Epps, Fig, and Sam in the cafeteria waiting for word, and when they hadn't heard any fighting, he'd wandered out to see if it was safe. It had to be, Ironhide would have picked him up immediately if it wasn't, but then again Barricade was right there, so how safe could it be? The Captain looked around a bit more, and then tapped Optimus on the ped, raising an eyebrow and indicating that he was waiting for an explanation.

"I believe you'll find some suitable way to inform Secretary Keller that Barricade will be staying with us, Captain." Optimus said pleasantly, "I have full faith in you on this matter."

The Captain stared at his Cybertronian counterpart in disbelief, but he was ignored as the Prime just plucked Miles out of Barricade's grasp, leaving the 'con open for Ratchet to attack and drag to his Medbay.

* * *

><p>"Did Barricade truly do nothing to you?"<p>

Miles glanced over at Optimus as the Prime's holoform entered his room, the teen sitting up on his inflatable mattress. The Prime had been courteous enough to allow him time alone to change, but the teen knew it wouldn't last long. He sat Indian style, allowing Optimus enough room to plop down beside him.

"Outside of a few minor scares he did nothing, boss 'bot." Miles grinned, brushing off the concern. "Ain't nothing to worry about."

"What you did today was extremely brave, Miles." The Prime stared at the teen, "We made a mistake in not watching you closer, and I apologize for it. You must have been scared."

Miles glanced at the holoform briefly, trying to find a clue as to what the Prime was searching for. He sighed, and leaned against Optimus. The teen knew the Prime wanted to comfort those in his ranks and rarely got the chance to, so he saw no harm in letting Optimus hold him. And after the day he'd just had he appreciated the touchy-feely a bit more than he would have liked, even though he felt like Will somehow needed this hug a bit more.


	7. Smiling

**AN: **Thanks for being patient, and for the reviews! :) Bit short of a chapter, but I had it mostly done and finished it up quickly for all of you. Enjoy.

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><p>The next day it took Miles awhile to get Sam to agree to come and visit Barricade with him. Bumblebee insisted on coming along as well, and neither teen put up a fuss about it. Optimus, Ironhide, Jazz and Ratchet had been called away momentarily to talk with Will about how exactly the Captain would be explaining the Decepticon's presence on base. It was nearly lunchtime before the trio walked into the Medbay, Barricade sitting up on a berth and watching their entrance with boredom.<p>

Sam stayed up on Bumblebee's shoulder, feeling safer there than he did anywhere else while near the 'con. Miles had shared his tale of the alone time he'd spent with Barricade, and Sam had shared his own terrifying first encounter. He'd be civil if Barricade was, but the 'con didn't even glance his way for more than a second. Miles was the only one who wasn't wary as they entered the Medbay, and walked on his own right up towards Barricade.

"Well, Barricade, how do you feel?" Miles asked, glancing around the Medbay in mild curiosity. It was rare to see Ratchet not in it.

"Better with some Energon in me," The Decepticon replied with a neutral tone, optics focused on Bumblebee and Sam. "The pit-spawn of a Medic has been trying to get my systems to cool down all night through a direct connect in my port but he hasn't been able to get past my coding so far. He has to be careful."

"Why?" Sam asked from his place on Bumblebee's shoulder, "Is there a chance he could get infected?"

Barricade's optics flickered to Sam in surprise, it seemed as if he hadn't noticed the organic on Bumblebee's shoulder strut and had just been eying the Scout warily. Miles knew it was lucky that Sam was even there, after his friend's initial encounter with the 'con he had been less than welcoming to the idea and the blonde had been determined to show Sam that the Decepticon wasn't actually that bad.

"There's a slight risk, but I imagine the Medic is a bit more intelligent than the Autobot Weapons Specialist." Barricade's optics flickered back to Bumblebee to gauge his reaction, but the Scout just snorted, so he returned his attention to Sam and sneered. "I suppose since I'm expected to be polite, I'll introduce myself. I am Barricade."

Sam stared at Barricade in momentary confusion, and then rolled his eyes. "Very funny. I know exactly who you are, Barricade."

"I would expect so since you met me yesterday, but this is more to please the Prime than you." Barricade looked unimpressed, "Are you going to introduce yourself or are you incapable of doing so?"

"Barricade, you know him." Miles answered, Sam looking torn between wanting to be mad or just confused. "He shouldn't have to introduce himself, that's not how humans do it. Once you know someone there's no point in re-introducing yourself."

"Outside of yesterday I have never seen this organic before in my life, Fleshling, and I did not catch his name then."

The silence that followed his statement seemed to surprise the 'con, and he glanced between Bumblebee and Miles. Sam's gob smacked expression was evident, and Bumblebee was just staring at the 'con with disbelief. Miles was doing much the same, looking at the 'con and trying to convince himself that it was just a joke the 'con was trying to play. He was sure he'd mentioned Sam at some point yesterday, and the 'con hadn't questioned him, then. But then again he hadn't asked about Will, Epps, or Fig, either. Miles and Sam didn't need to be told that Barricade not remembering an organic, one as important as Sam and that he himself had tracked down, was a bad thing.

"I'm Sam," Sam offered finely, voice soft and unsure. "My Ebay name is Ladiesman217."

"What the pit is Ebay?" Barricade growled, "The Medic turned off my internet, organic, so you'll have to take the time to explain it to me."

There was no doubt that Barricade was being serious now. The chance of the 'con trying to initiate a joke on Sam of all people was unlikely in the first place unless he had Miles to back him, since none of the soldiers were currently being that active towards him, and given his unstable position with the Autobots he wouldn't want to risk the chance. Bumblebee brought up a servo and ran a finger down Sam's back comfortingly, faceplates neutral as he kept his optics trained on Barricade.

"You'll have to get Miles to explain it to you, Barricade." Bumblebee replied for Sam, "Ratchet wanted to see Sam for his check up and you can imagine how he might react if we're late."

Bumblebee left quickly with his Charge after that, and Miles could easily translate his excuse into what would most likely happen. Ratchet was going to have to know that Barricade was at least missing some of his memory, if not more. The teen wasn't sure how Cybertronian processors were wired, but Miles would assume if they even forgot something it would be something that was old or deemed unimportant, and in the case where Barricade met Sam his friend had been _very_ important and it hadn't been all that long ago.

But Barricade was looking at him expectantly for an explanation, so Miles put on a smile. "Ebay's a website where you can sell stuff. Sam's been trying for forever now to hock some of his Great-grandpa's stuff on there, even tried to sell some broken glasses."

Barricade just vented softly, showing he had paid attention but obviously didn't care all that much. Miles had hoped by dropping something about the glasses it might jumpstart the Decepticon's memory, but it seemed to have no effect on him. Miles' smile faltered momentarily, before the teen pulled himself up onto the giant medical berth that the 'con was on and sat next to him.

"Since we're both here and have nothing better to do-"

"It's a long way I've fallen if conversing with an organic or an Autobot are my only options of entertainment."

"-what about story time?" Miles asked, completely ignoring Barricade interrupting him.

Barricade glared at the teen, "_Story time_?"

"You tell me awesome shit you've done, like kicking Autobot ass or narrowly escaping the hands of Unicron or some shit, and I'll regal you with tales of my own awesome life."

"…" Barricade didn't seem to be at all interested.

"Oh, so you don't have any cool stories?" Miles asked in mock-disappointment, knowing if he riled the 'con up he'd get what he wanted. "And here I was thinking that since you were a Scout you'd have awesome things to talk about like Bumblebee."

That did it for sure. Letting Barricade have some sort of competition with the Scout, even with it just being storytelling, pleased the Decepticon. He didn't need to know that Miles hadn't actually talked to Bumblebee that much, or that the teen was really fishing for a moment where he could bring up a recollection of Optimus' where Barricade had been present and see if the 'con remembered it or not.

* * *

><p>Ratchet, Sam, and Bumblebee stared into the Medbay in disbelief. It hadn't taken the Scout all that long to find Ratchet and tell the Medbot that Barricade seemed to be a lot worse off than they had originally thought, but when they went back into the Medbay Miles and Barricade were laughing. Not just any laughter, either, because the teen was doubled up and holding his stomach, and while Barricade seemed to be faring a lot better his fans were kicked up in high gear and none of the newcomers could even recall hearing him do anything more than a snort.<p>

"So I take it you are feeling fine this morning then, Barricade?" Ratchet asked dryly, and Barricade immediately seemed to sober up once he realized that two Autobots were in the room, nodding. It was almost unnerving for the Autobot Scout and Medic to realize they could sneak up on Barricade with his current ailments, and Ratchet sent a quick message to warn Ironhide and Optimus to watch how they approached him just in case.

Sam was watching his best friend try to calm himself with a raised eyebrow, "Mind explaining what's so funny? I haven't seen Miles lose it like this since Mikaela accidentally turned her hair green."

"That is between me and the Fleshling, Witwicky." Barricade smirked, and Bumblebee and Sam stared at the 'con in surprise. Miles' humor dyed off a lot quicker as well, because all three knew that Sam had never mentioned his last name, and by Miles' reaction he hadn't mentioned it in the short time the teen and Autobot Scout had been gone either.

"Speaking of Samuel," Ratchet walked over to Barricade and started to scan the 'con, "Does Miles know yet how you met him, Barricade?"

"How am I supposed to know what you Autodolts do and don't inform an organic of?" Barricade asked with a scoff, "He hasn't mentioned knowing that I scared Witwicky here so badly that he almost pissed himself."

"Oh, this I have got to here!" Miles said with enthusiasm, grinning, but Sam kept his mouth shut, because he wasn't nearly as good as acting as Miles was and he didn't think he could act embarrassed or mad at the 'con right now. He just felt sympathy for him.

* * *

><p>Ratchet had kicked everyone and mech out of his Medbay a while ago so Barricade could get a tour of the base. In truth, this gave the Medbot some alone time while he nursed his high grade, sitting at his desk and just staring at the wall in front of him. Optimus would need told of Barricade's condition, all of the 'bots would, but how much needed said?<p>

Barricade was bad off. No matter how much Energon he fed him his energy levels only improved a little, and the slip up with Sam hadn't been the first thing that the Medic had noticed. Memory loss was one of the worst signs, and if he was right it was a sign that there was no going back for Barricade. He would either get worse or stay as he was, but he had never once seen a mech seemingly recover his memory with no aide at all. There was absolutely no reason for Barricade to have forgotten Sam completely and then not even twenty minutes later remember everything about the teen.

But Ratchet was lying to himself. There was a reason, even if he didn't like it. Miles seemed to be becoming a type of boon for the Decepticon. With the Allspark shard inside of him and the easy friendship they seemed to have developed, Barricade had taken to the young organic, and perhaps the Shard had noticed that. Or maybe it was just because Barricade was a Cybertronian and the Shard wanted to look out after its own, but his condition seemed to improve almost imperceptibly while he was around Miles. Not a huge amount, but Barricade had known who Sam was the day before and woke up worse, and the shard seemed to help with that.

With extended contact with Miles Barricade might improve even more, but Ratchet was unwilling to ask the teen to do something like that. It was just a theory, and if it was unfounded than he didn't want the organic getting too attached to the 'con only for Barricade to die on him. As much as Ratchet liked the possibilities he just couldn't lie to himself, he was no expert of this particular field of medicine, and all the good data about it would be back in the Iacon library. Maybe something like this had occurred before and it was just unheard of, maybe Miles was just a friend to the 'con and not a catalyst.

* * *

><p>Miles stared at a near mirror image of himself in mild bewilderment, and from his left he could hear Sam laughing. His near twin gave an annoyed glance at the teen, the facial expression, lack of injury, and red eyes the only thing giving Barricade away as a holoform. Then again, Miles had never seen himself look quite so angry, so the expression alone was a huge tip off. But it was still unnerving to look directly at yourself.<p>

The 'con had gotten a short tour of the base, short because it wasn't very big at all for even a mech his size to traverse, and now he had been left by his fellow Cybertronians just to be surrounded by the organics, much to his annoyance. It was a pain for him to constantly look down at them and keep track of them when they went underfoot, or near enough to give him pause, so he just created a holoform to get on his level. He did one the soldiers could agree with almost immediately, deciding to just erase the one he'd initially use in the first place as the Autobots wouldn't care to find out he was using a dead man's image. So Miles had been the next best choice, considering the teen was the only organic he liked on the pit-forsaken planet. Which left Miles staring at him, Sam laughing, and the Captain and Sergeant seemingly unsure how to take these turn of events. Barricade really didn't care.

"Try smiling," Miles suggested, deciding he didn't like the scowl on his face at all. Anger just did not suite him.

Of course, what Barricade then did was even worse. It wasn't so much smiling as it was bearing teeth with a small upturn at the corner of the lips and it made him look like he was about to murder someone. Sam's small utterance of 'Holy shit' got swift nods from both Will and Epps.

"Never smile again." Miles swiftly ordered, "You make me look like I'm about to rip someone's heart out."

"I fail to see how that is a bad thing."

Miles gave the 'con a pained look, while Sam patted him on the back and laughed. "Just don't make that face around Optimus or a normal organic and we'll be golden, 'Cade."


End file.
